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 "medical professionals" ...
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Cracking the Codes
Cracking the Codes documented how thousands of medical professionals have steadily billed Medicare for more complex and costly health care over the past decade – adding $11 billion or more to their fees – despite little evidence elderly patients required more treatment. The series also uncovered a broad range of costly billing errors and abuses that have plagued Medicare for years – from confusion over how to pick proper payment codes to apparent overcharges in medical offices and hospital emergency rooms. The findings strongly suggest these problems, known as “upcoding,” are worsening amid lax federal oversight and the government-sponsored switch from paper to electronic medical records.
Tags: Medicare; health care; billing; medical offices; hospitals; government; medical records
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Human Tissue Donation
It’s a billion dollar business that begins with an act of generosity: When someone or their family agrees to donate a person’s body, for free, after death. When they click the “donor” box on their driver’s license application, most organ donors don’t realize that they have also agreed to donate their tissue. They’ve made a legally binding promise that a private company can take skin, bones, tendons, ligaments and anything that’s not a living organ—and turn it into for-profit medical products. In a four part radio series that aired in July 2012, NPR Correspondent Joseph Shapiro highlighted this little known industry and the shortcomings in regulation that raise concerns among donors, medical professionals, and government officials at many levels. The series was part of a collaboration between NPR’s Investigative Unit and the International Consortium for of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity.
Tags: Human tissue donation; organ donors; ICIJ; Center for Public Integrity
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Cracking the Codes
The story documents how thousands of medical professionals have steadily billed Medicare for more complex and costly health acre over the psat decade -- adding $11 billion or more to their fees -- despite little evidence elderly patients required more treatment.
Tags: elderly; medicine; healthcare
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Soldiers At Risk: Iraq Water Investigation
With temperatures rising up to “130 degrees or more” a day, why would the military be rationing water to only 2 liters a day per person? The answer is a water shortage. As a result, some soldiers are reporting from “serious physical problems with their kidneys, nerve degeneration, and even serious brain damage”. Further, some of these conditions went on for up to a year.
Tags: Iraq; Wars; medical professionals; officers; Army; Veterans Administration; defenders; troops
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The Concussion Crisis
An examination of "the growing problem of concussions in football, among high school through professional players, from a medical and psychological standpoint."
Tags: football; injuries; head; concussions; safety equipment; helmets; treatment; medical; public health
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Miracle Machines
"A Seattle Times investigation uncovered a global network of manufacturers who sell unproven devices, and practitioners who prey on unsuspecting patients. Capitalizing on weak government oversight, they have used these devices - some illegal, others potentially dangerous - to drain patients' bank accounts, misdiagnose diseases, and divert critically ill people from life-saving care."
Tags: medical cures; energy medicine; energy devices; medical-device; PAP-IMI; health-care professionals;
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Fentanyl - Fatal Euphoria
This special section traces the drug fentanyl from a chemist in Mexico City to dope houses, morgues and the homes of grieving families all over the US, but especially in Detroit. The reporters used medical examiner records and interviews with street addicts to show that drugs like fentanyl are not only problems of the inner city; victims come from diverse social and professional backgrounds.
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Missouri Chicken Pox Vaccine
This reporter working closely with the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules checks out why there is opposition to a law making Chicken Pox vaccines mandatory. According to this story, this issue is being debated in other states such as Illinois since some medical professionals are against the inoculations.
Tags: Chicken Pox vaccines; vaccination; inoculation; Joint Committee on Administrative Rules; JCAR; Illinois; medical professionals; immunization
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Dr. Crooks: Exposing A Criminal
This investigation follows allegations a prominent dermatologist faced of child sexual molestation that dated back more than 40 years. Police pursued the allegations and more cases came forward after the investigation aired. The dermatologist in question gave up his medical license and turned himself into the police.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; child molestation; child sexual abuse; FOIA; medical malpractice; professional misconduct
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District bets on sports medicine
North Broward County Hospital District hired three new physicians as team doctors, clinicians who work with regular patients and as medical directors of a new sports medicine institute. The three doctors will receive $16.5 million over nine years, much higher salaries than most orthopedic surgeons in the Southeast receive. Other physicians and critics say this is unfair because the district never looked into other options which may have been cheaper for taxpayers, such as seeking competitive bids. They believe this deal may have "more to do with politics than with medicine."
Tags: Professional sports; Dr. George Caldwell; Dr. Erol Yoldas; Dr. Daniel Kanell