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A growing number of health care groups in the Twin Cities are investing in strategies to make sure doctors don't serve as unwitting spigots of medications for addicts. But there's also concern that increased regulation could prompt physicians to stop prescribing medications to patients with legitimate pain-control needs.
"Doctors with financial ties to drug companies have heavily influenced treatment guidelines recommending the most lucrative drugs in American medicine, an analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today has found."
"The data reveals, for the first time, that long wait times are contributing to tens of thousands of veterans being approved for disability benefits and pensions only after it is too late for the money to help them."
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Wrong-Way River
“Biologists predict the number of unwanted organisms moving on the Chicago canal will only grow until the waterway is somehow plugged. And it is much more than a Great Lakes problem because biological pollution travels both directions on this invasive species superhighway.”
The Morning Call
Amazon warehouse workers fight for unemployment benefits
“Its relationship with Amazon has made Integrity Staffing Solutions the biggest temporary-employment firm in the Lehigh Valley and one of the fastest-growing agencies of its kind in the country. Part of its role is fighting to keep its workers from collecting unemployment benefits after they have lost a job at Amazon.”
The Atlantic
In Southern Towns, 'Segregation Academies' Are Still Going Strong
“In the 1960s and '70s, towns across the South created inexpensive private schools to keep white students from having to mix with black. Many remain open, the communities around them as divided as ever.”
The Indianapolis Star
The China Letter
“Now the one person who knew the whole truth was dead, leaving a trail of documents and stories on two continents. They provide a few answers. But they raise plenty of questions, not least of which is why a state agency hired a highly persuasive but not particularly accomplished interpreter for the delicate task of luring international investment and jobs to Indiana.”
The Orange County Register
Universities with connections win most stem cell money
Repeated independent reviews of the agency, including one by the Institute of Medicine released this month, have found that its board is rife with conflicts of interest. In fact, of the $1.7 billion that the agency has awarded so far, about 90 percent has gone to research institutions with ties to people sitting on the board, according to an analysis by David Jensen at the California Stem Cell Report, which closely follows the agency's operations.
PublicSource
Shale drillers eager to move wastewater on barges
The shale gas drilling industry wants to move its wastewater by barge on rivers and lakes across the country. But the U.S. Coast Guard, which regulates the nation’s waterways, must first decide whether it’s safe.
Bloomberg
BP’s U.S. Suspension Allows Airport-Fuel Exception for Pentagon
“BP Plc (BP/)’s temporary ban from new U.S. government work now includes a bit of wiggle room for the Defense Department.
ProPublica
Karl Rove’s Dark Money Group Promised IRS It Would Spend ‘Limited’ Money on Elections
“In a confidential 2010 filing, Crossroads GPS — the dark money group that spent more than $70 million from anonymous donors on the 2012 election — told the Internal Revenue Service that its efforts would focus on public education, research and shaping legislation and policy.”
The Dallas Morning News
The Burden of Lead: West Dallas deals with contamination decades later
“The low-income neighborhood of older wood-frame homes in West Dallas is a far cry from the suburb of newly built brick houses in Frisco 30 miles to the north. But the two North Texas communities share a bond: Both were contaminated by industrial lead for nearly half a century.”
The Statesman Journal
When politicians gamble on developers with taxpayer money, who ends up paying?
“Public agencies often use tax-based resources to partner with private developers. Those deals can help transform blighted areas, but they also can become costly projects with dubious results. In a two-day series, the Statesman Journal explores local examples of how public-private partnerships have worked.”
The Columbus Dispatch
Federal student loans become constant burden
“But millions of others also are in default, and some have been there for years. To gauge the lingering consequences, The Dispatch collected and analyzed a random sample of 394 cases from the nearly 16,000 lawsuits that the U.S. government has filed against defaulted student-loan debtors since 2007.”
The Pioneer Press
Hooked on Opiates: More legal use leads to more addiction, crimes, deaths
“Last year, enough of the two leading painkillers -- oxycodone and hydrocodone -- was distributed in the state to provide 18 pills for every man, woman and child. That's up from two pills per person in 1997.”
Doctors face quandary of relieving pain, without feeding addiction
A growing number of health care groups in the Twin Cities are investing in strategies to make sure doctors don't serve as unwitting spigots of medications for addicts. But there's also concern that increased regulation could prompt physicians to stop prescribing medications to patients with legitimate pain-control needs.
The Charlotte Observer and the (Raleigh) News & Observer
Prognosis: Profits, The rising fortunes of Charlotte hospitals haven't always helped patients
"In the latest installment of their ongoing investigation into nonprofit hospitals, the Charlotte Observer and News & Observer of Raleigh reported Sunday that N.C. patients are likely to pay more for routine health care if their doctors are employed by a hospital."
You can find Charlotte's stories here and Raleigh's stories here.
An investigation by MPR News has found that a "Republican state representative who steered legislation through the House to drop thousands of people from the state-run MinnesotaCare program is an independent contractor for an insurance brokerage firm that lobbied for the change."
According to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times, "By the time the medical board stopped Estiandan from prescribing, more than four years after it began investigating, eight of his patients had died of overdoses or related causes, according to coroners' records. It was not an isolated case of futility by California's medical regulators. The board has repeatedly failed to protect patients from reckless prescribing by doctors, a Los Angeles Times investigation found."
According to an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “For years, officials at the agency that administers Medicare have known that fraudsters sign up as health care providers using UPS Store mailboxes and other post office box like addresses as their location. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says it lacks the technology to identify these locations because they look like legitimate street addresses, not like the easily identified post office box addresses.”
In three dozen cases of developmentally disabled patients accusing caretakers of rape and molestation during the past four years, police failed to complete even the simplest tasks associated with investigating the alleged crimes, according to a California Watch investigation.
"A Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found the growth in Advair sales followed new asthma treatment recommendations that were written largely by doctors who received money from GlaxoSmithKline and other companies that market the drugs."
As homeowners begin to pick up the pieces following the destruction of Hurricane Sandy, their focus turns to insurance. Echoing the situation on the east coast, the Minneapolis Star Tribune investigated the topic of homeowner’s insurance premiums following natural disasters in the state of Minnesota.
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