The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "financial health" ...
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The PERA Puzzle
The Rocky Mountain News reveals how at a time when Colorado's Public Employees' Retirement Association went from a surplus to drastic underfunding jeopardizing its members' retirement, the staff and board ensured their own retirement security and financial health through generous perks and an extensive travel policy.
Tags: PERA; stock market; public employee; Colorado; retirement; pension; shareholder
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Bloody Sundays; NFL Gladiators Pay High Price
This report by the Tribune-Review looks at the lives of NFL football players, and the effect that massive amounts of injuries have on their personal and financial lives. The report finds that in the 2000-2003 seasons, NFL players had moe that 6,500 injuries--including serious head traumas. Prine's article also looks at "how the financial structure of the league might affect the high injury rates."
Tags: National Football League (NFL); player injuries; health risks
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Danger: Government at Work. Public employers pay no fines, though safety violations numerous
"While fines are the state's prime weapon against private businesses that violate safety and health standards, state law prohibits financial penalties against state and local government employers." But, those government workplaces are four times more likely than private businesses to be cited for serious safety violations. These violations occur in all kinds of government workplaces, from wastewater plants to public schools. This article offers several well- developed examples of government safety violations, and then discusses a legislative solution.
Tags: safety inspection; accidents; federal programs; Wake Enterprises
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Offshore Assets. How Floating Hospital used Medicaid to steer course toward profit. As a ship, New York clinic got fat reimbursements, then expanded on land. Contracts and lovers in suit.
According to the article, "The Floating Hospital traces its origins to the 1860s when a group of New York Times editors decided that ailing newsboys would benefit from a dose of fresh sea air. Today, the 187-foot, four-deck vessel, usually moored near the southern tip of Manhattan island, provides health care to the uninsured and to people on Medicaid. Dogged by financial troubles in the early 1990s and wanting to reach more of the indigent, it developed a plan to become a year-round clinic, and in the process, was able to wangle a large Medicaid reimbursement because of substantial capital costs for the ship."
Tags: M
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Preacherman
An NBC News Dateline investigation looks at the ministry of televangelist/faith healer Benny Hinn. The report examines the healings that he takes credit for, as well as financial issues related to the international multi-million dollar television ministry he runs.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Benny Hinn; televangelist; faith healer; television ministry; religion; crusades; health; Pastor Benny; religion
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Code of Silence
This is a collection of stories on medical incompetence. The stories had four concentrations: the surrounding Vermont's medical profession, financial fraud over a construction project at the state's largest hospital, a regulatory system, and state laws that prevented health consumers from obtaining even basic information about the quality of hospitals and doctors.
Tags: medical fraud; doctors; patients; regulation; hospitals
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St. John's Hospital: A Special Report--The Hurt & the Healing
After a scathing state report threatened its very survival, St. John's Hospital took a hard look at itself and its mission and decided to mend. Regulatory and financial troubles had to be addressed, along with winning back the trust of patients and demoralized doctors and staff.
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FDA and Drug Safety
A CBS investigative series reports on different aspects of dangerous medicine. Some of the reports reveal that the managed care has gone out of control. "Health insurance giants ... are harming patients by denying crucial medical care, illegally denying and delaying claims, and using unfair and deceptive trade practices." Insurers also "downcode" doctors' claims - that is, change them to services that pay less or nothing at all. Other stories look at the risks posed by drug studies and the lack of enough oversight from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One of the reports tells how a healthy baby died after being enrolled in a study of Propulsid, a heartburn drug that turned out to be dangerous and has been repeatedly rejected by the FDA for pediatric use. The series also examine cases of prescription drugs that should have never been sold, and concludes that FDA has become too close to the pharmaceutical industry. A major finding is that pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. have huge financial incentives to keep dangerous drugs on the market at the cost of patients' deaths and injuries.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; medicine; HMOs; health care; patients; Cigna; Oxford; Connecticare; Aetna; Physician Health Services; Anthem Bule Cross/Blue Shield; Rezulin; Pfeizer; Warner Lambert
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Who's watching over Kansas City's restaurants?
The Kansas City Star reports on severe sanitation problems at city's restaurants. The investigation main findings include that roughly 800 food establishments had gone a year or more without routine inspection; the inspection staff is generally inexperienced and poorly paid; the city food code lacks serious financial penalties and is based on 25-year-old federal standards many other cities abandoned years ago. The stories document about 20,000 food code violations discovered by city inspectors from 1996 to 1999. In some instances, inspectors ignored sanitation problems that could have led to closing of a restaurant.
Tags: food code; foodborne diseases; sanitation; diners; safety; public health; FDA; Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; CAR
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Overwhelmed and Broken Down: Caring for the Elderly and Disabled
The Journal Sentinel reports on deaths and injuries occurring in assisted living facilities. The three-part finds that elderly and disabled people are put at risk by "poorly trained or stretched too thin" caregivers. The findings are based on analysis of a database of state inspection reports. Other findings include that about 10,000 of the state residents who need long-term care have been pressed to wait for months or years for assistance from the state. The investigation examines the nursing homes industry in light of the aging baby-boom generation and the increasing number of people needing long-term care nationwide. The investigative team concludes that nursing homes are "crumbling under the financial burdens caused by inadequate Medicaid payments."
Tags: CAR; group homes; disabilities; health care; doctors; nurses