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 "insurance for children" ...
-
Investigating Five Rivers
An investigation into Five Rivers, a nonprofit meant to help find jobs and buy homes for those with low to moderate incomes, found that there was mismanagement of money. The majority of the revenues during the past 10 years "went towards the salary, health and life insurance, travel, meals and other expenses that benefited Five Rivers' executive director and her children."
Tags: nonprofit; mismanagement; lobbyist; Five Rivers; federal money
-
Charity and the Bottom Line
In the past decade, St. Louis hospitals have become less charitable towards people who are poor and without any insurance. According to the hospitals, this is due to the rising costs and the increasing number of people who are uninsured. As this report finds, although the percentage of people without insurance has gone down only by 13 percent, the percent of charity care has gone down by 46 percent.
Tags: hospitals; hospitals in St. Louis; charity; nonprofit; charity hospitals; charities in St. Louis; insurance; health of insurance; insurance for children; uninsured; insurance levels in Missouri
-
Injured For Life
Times-Dispatch reporter Bill McKelway was finally able to penetrate the secretive Virginia Birth-related Neurological Injury Program, after years of trying to shed light on one of the most secret institutions in the state. The program was created to help pay compensation for children who suffered brain damage during birth at the hands of doctors and nurses that was "so severe that they never will be able to care for themselves." By paying out claims in secret, the intention was to keep malpractice lawsuits to a minimum and thus malpractice insurance low. But the institution was so secretive that even families involved in the program had no knowledge of each other, and the program claimed for years it was exempt from all open-records and open-meetings laws. However, McKelway was able to slowly gain information on the system, and he wrote dozens of stories on it in 2003 . The resulting reports by the Times-Dispatch revealed a program that was "woefully underfunded, failing to slow the increases in malpractice insurance, as it was designed to do, inconsistent in its application, and aimed at protecting doctors and hospitals more than helping brain-injured babies." In the wake of the reporting, the program's board meetings were made public for the first time in 15 years, and the institution is now subject to Virginia's freedom of information act.
Tags: FOIA; open records; birth; children; babies; baby; brain damage; neurological; nurse; doctor; physician; compensation; secret; malpractice; victim
-
Injured for Life
The Richmond Times-Dispatch examines "how children were being treated by the Virginia Birth-related Neurological Injury Compensation Program. The program was set up 15 years ago by the state legislature in an attempt to lower insurance costs for doctors while also providing a lifetime of care for families of children injured at birth. To date, the program had done neither. Only 72 children have been admitted to the program, though experts say hundreds more should be eligible."
Tags: injured; Virginia Birth; Neurological Injury Compensation Program; injured at birth
-
How will you pay for your old age? Long term care insurance is one option -- an expensive one. Do you need it?
Half of all women and a third of all men who are now 65 will spend their last years in a nursing home at a cost of $40,000 a year. If you are poor or if the cost of care impoverishes you, Medicaid pays. But those who hope to leave something to a spouse or to children and grandchildren cannot fall back on welfare. They must look instead to private insurers.
Tags: Retirement; nursing homes; private insurers; elderly; Medicaid
-
State of Pain
This story provides examples of the confusion new laws and regulations regarding Medicaid have brought to the state of Missouri. Social Workers have become overwhelmed by the process, there are never ending cases, and they are getting too may referrals. Often times the vast number of calls coming in to social workers, force them to close older projects to new clients on several occasions.
Tags: Medicaid; MC + Consumer Advocacy Project; Missouri Department of Social Services; DSS; social worker; Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act; Children's Health Insurance Program; Missouri State Workers Union Local 6355; Medicaid-expansion laws; Reform Organization for Welfare
-
2002 IRE National Conference Show and Tell Tape #3
1) Valeri Williams (WFAA-Dallas/Fort Worth) WFAA-TV follows up its 2000 IRE Awards entry with this return investigation into Fort Worth's John Peter Smith Hospital. Reporter Williams and producer Schucker continued their investigation, focusing on Dr. Lydia Grotti and her connection to suspicious and overlooked deaths in the emergency room. As a result of WFAA-TV's investigation the Texas Department of Health began conducting its own investigation and discovered additional deaths that took place in the ER. The county district attorney's office called in a special prosecutor to examine a total of eight suspicious deaths in connection with Dr. Grotti at the hospital. 2) Robb Leer (KSTP-Minnesota) An investigation reveals that state adoption laws have loopholes that allow mothers of out of wedlock children to give the babies up for adoption without the father ever knowing. 3) Larry Posner (Inside Edition) An investigation reveals that a Florida man claiming to suffer from a rare conversion disorder that makes him act like a child is actually defrauding the state. 4) Jim Strickland (WSB-Atlanta) An area smoke detector salesman plays off the fears of senior citizens and sells them alarms at an inflated cost. 5) Larry Posner (Inside Edition) An investigation reveals that insurance companies can sell nearly-destroyed cars as though they weren't damaged. The cars are then repaired and end up in the hands of drivers who don't know they're driving dangerous vehicles. 6) Laure Quinlivan (WCPO-Cincinnati) A clip from the hour-long Visions of Vine street documentary on Cincinnati's deteriorating urban core. WCPO-TV tells the story of "Vine Street, the crumbling centerpiece of a neighborhood called Over the Rhine, ground zero for the April race riots that attracted national media attention." 7) (WTTG-District of Columbia) The city's DMV routinely charges two drivers for the same parking ticket or issues illegitimate tickets. The system is so bad that one lawyer spends all his time fighting parking tickets. 8) Vic Lee (KRON-San Francisco) An investigation reveals its not hard for employees at the San Francisco airport to sneak in knives. 9) (CBS 11-Dallas) Workers at a U.S. Post Office in Dallas are shown stealing from the mail. 10) (CBS 11-Dallas) Coverage of a fony charity called Kid Wish USA. The scam took money from donors who thought they were giving to dying children.
Tags: TAPE; San Francisco; conference; no transcripts; IRE
-
Crowning Glory?
Dateline reports on Medicaid abuses among Texas dentists. In 1999, Texas dentists put more stainless steel crowns on poor children in the Medicaid program than all the children in the Medicaid programs in New York, Florida, California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania combined. Some dental work was being done without the consent of parents. The investigation used FOI requests for the Medicaid billing database to complete its analysis.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Medicaid; dental insurance; fraud
-
Arrest my kid
Progressive investigates the failure of the public health-care system to help mentally ill children and their parents. The story reveals that some parents, unable to pay for a psychiatric clinic stay, "deliberately invoke the juvenile justice system in order to get mental health treatment for their kids." The author exemplifies the problem with three cases of mentally ill children who were arrested on the request of their parents. The article also looks at a lawsuit filed against a Minnesota's health insurance company that instructed parents having their children arrested.
Tags: social service workers; juvenile justice; children; parents; psychiatry; psychology; National Alliance for Mentally Ill; eating disorders; chemical dependency; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
-
Damages
The Philadelphia Magazine details the story behind the largest medical malpractice award in Pennsylvania history, a $7.5 million settlement. The article describes "the collision of a brilliant surgeon, a heavyweight lawyer and a severely injured little boy in a Philadelphia courtroom..." The story reports on the medical treatment of Stephen Gauls, the child "who was left brain-damaged by a heart operation" at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. One of the main findings is that "Pennsylvania's health care system has become like the Titanic," because the state legislature has done nothing for increasing patient safety. The author reveals that for 16 months "the state board of medicine hasn't disciplined or cited a single doctor for substandard care."
Tags: William Norwood; infants; hospitals; surgery; operation; pediatricians; awyers; litigation; courts; liability; insurance; health; medicine