Health care and other investigative stories, as reported by Extra! Extra!

SHOWCASE | May 123, 2005

From day to day, Extra!Extra!, a feature of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), issues updates on investigative reporting across the U.S. Most recently it has focused on lobbying and scams regarding health care.

By Shant Mesrobian

shant@niemanwatchdog.org

On May 2, IRE highlighted a report by M. Asif Ismail of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, DC. In a review of lobbying records, Ismail revealed that the “deep-pocketed pharmaceutical and health products industry has lobbied on more than 1,400 congressional bills since 1998 and spent a whopping $759 million during that period.” The report indicates that drug companies and health product manufacturers have retained the services of more lobbyists in the six and a half years than any other industry. The report went on to show how those lobbying efforts have translated into significant legislative victories for the pharmaceutical and health products industry.

IRE pointed to a story also on May 2 striking a similar note, in which James Salzer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Georgia governor Sonny Perdue, who has made issue of gifts that lobbyists give to state legislators, has himself accepted gifts from lobbyists, including airplane rides, NASCAR tickets, and dinners.

On April 29, IRE reported on a story by Erin McCormick of the San Francisco Chronicle, in which McCormick investigates the use of elderly immigrants in Medicare scams. The story detailed how San Francisco seniors were used by clinics to bill the Medicare program for excessive and unneeded tests, procedures, and supplies. One such scam involved clinics charging Medicare up to $7,000 for wheelchairs which were given to patients who were fully capable of walking. Patients in return received $100 from the clinics. Those who referred patients to the clinics received $50. Patients would also find charges on Medicare statements for items they never received. The story indicated that “fraud, abuse and error cost Medicare tens of billions of dollars a year.”

On April 28, IRE linked to a story by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber of the Los Angeles Times in which Weber and Ornstein found that “Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center paid more than $1.3 million over the last year for the services of a radiologist who said he worked an average of 20 hours a day, seven days a week, during one recent six-month stretch.” The story reported that supervisors “signed off on all of Tate's hours, even when they reached 22 to 24 a day for weeks on end.” The radiologist, who no longer works at the hospital, insisted that he worked every hour listed on his timecards.

On April 26, IRE linked to an investigative report by Chris Fusco and Lori Rackl of the Chicago Sun-Times, who used state records to show that state prison parolees were living in 37 nursing homes without other residents having any knowledge. The report provided details on the offenders and their offenses.

Also on April 26, IRE pointed out an article titled “County workers hit OT jackpot” by Mickey Ciokajlo and Todd Lighty of the Chicago Tribune, in which they used Cook County records to reveal that “more than 100 county workers were each paid $50,000 or more in overtime last year, with one industrious nurse pulling down $187,500 in extra pay.” The article reported that since 1996, government overtime pay had increased from $32 million to $76.7 million. 57 workers, mostly in health service positions, doubled their salaries as a result of overtime pay. The article went on to indicate that “Last year, overtime accounted for more than 10 percent of the more than $500 million in wages earned by workers in the health bureau” and that “Officials often pin some of the blame for high overtime costs on the nation's chronic nursing shortage.”

Click here for the entire listing of Extra!Extra! items, and click here to go to the main Investigative Reporters and Editors Web site.

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