“Get This Thing Out of My Chest”
A life-sustaining heart pump was taken off the market after years of problems and FDA inaction. Thousands of people are now stuck with it embedded in their hearts.
Making Life-or-Death Health Care Decisions
An investigation into quality problems with a heart pump shows how hard it can be for patients to get the information they need to make life’s most important health care decisions.
The Broken Front Line
As the winter’s surge of coronavirus cases overwhelmed Los Angeles hospitals, EMTs like Michael Diaz were forced to take previously unthinkable measures. What lasting impact will the pandemic have on America’s first responders?
Mueren en la lista de espera
En el condado de Los Ángeles, y en todo el país, médicos han tenido que decidir quién recibe un tratamiento para COVID-19 que salva vidas, y quién no.
Dying on the Waitlist
In Los Angeles County and around the country, doctors have had to decide who gets a lifesaving COVID-19 treatment and who doesn’t.
How the CARES Act Forgot America’s Most Vulnerable Hospitals
COVID-19 relief was meant to give a lifeline to hospitals, especially the small, rural facilities that struggled to stay open before 2020. But in states like Oklahoma, problems created by confusing guidelines could cause harm long after the pandemic.
How Operation Warp Speed Created Vaccination Chaos
States are struggling to plan their vaccination programs with just one week’s notice for how many doses they’ll receive from the federal government. The incoming Biden administration is deciding what to do with this dysfunctional system.
New Bill Aims to End Racial Disparities in Amputations
Informed by a ProPublica article investigating why Black Americans were three times more likely to undergo diabetic amputations, five members of congress are working to fund screening and enhance diagnostics in an effort to save limbs.
Inside the Fall of the CDC
How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.
How to Tell a Political Stunt From a Real Vaccine
There is a small chance that Pfizer’s vaccine trial will yield results by Nov. 3. But it could still take weeks for FDA review. Here’s everything that has to happen and how to tell a political stunt from a real vaccine.
How We Analyzed Data on Nursing Home Outbreaks
ProPublica found that nursing home chain CareOne has a higher COVID-19 death rate than other homes in New Jersey. We examined long-term care facilities using data from the state’s outbreak reports and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
How a $175 COVID-19 Test Led to $2,479 in Charges
A global pandemic ravaging America is no time to forget the first rule of American health care: There is no set price. One out-of-network medical provider in Texas seeks permission from patients to charge fees as high as six-figures to their insurance.
How to Understand COVID-19 Numbers
Viewed in isolation or presented without context, coronavirus numbers don’t always give an accurate picture of how the pandemic is being handled. Here, ProPublica journalists Caroline Chen and Ash Ngu offer insight on how to navigate the figures.
“Alguien tiene que ayudarme”
Phillip García estaba en crisis psiquiátrica. En la cárcel y en el hospital, los guardias respondieron con fuerza y mantuvieron atado al interno de 51 años durante casi 20 horas, hasta que murió. Advertencia: material con imágenes explícitas.
“Somebody’s Gotta Help Me”
Phillip Garcia was in psychiatric crisis. In jail and in the hospital, guards responded with force and restrained the 51-year-old inmate for almost 20 hours, until he died. Warning: graphic video content.
100,000 Lives Lost to COVID-19. What Did They Teach Us?
Each person who has died of COVID-19 was somebody’s everything. Even as we mourn for those we knew, cry for those we loved and consider those who have died uncounted, the full tragedy of the pandemic hinges on one question: How do we stop the next 100,000?
The Black American Amputation Epidemic
Black patients were losing limbs at triple the rate of others. The doctor put up billboards in the Mississippi Delta. Amputation Prevention Institute, they read. He could save their limbs, if it wasn’t too late.
COVID-19 Took Black Lives First. It Didn’t Have To.
In Chicago, 70 of the city’s 100 first recorded victims of COVID-19 were black. Their lives were rich, and their deaths cannot be dismissed as inevitable. Immediate factors could — and should — have been addressed.
This Hospital Has Only 8 Nurses. They Are Also the Janitors.
Eight nurses are the overwhelming majority of employees who remain at Haskell County Community Hospital in Oklahoma. The future of the 25-bed hospital, which has been whittled down to operating only an emergency room since 2019, is increasingly grim.
Meet the Pastors Holding In-Person Services During Coronavirus
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statewide stay-at-home order, though he declined to refer to it as such, that also designated religious services as essential. Some religious groups in Texas — it’s unclear just how many — are still welcoming parishioners.
¿Qué sucedería si se enferman los empleados que cortan las carnes del país?
Al mismo tiempo que las empacadoras de carne se agilizan para tratar de satisfacer la demanda, sus empleados comienzan a contraer COVID-19. Sin embargo algunos de ellos dicen que se están presentando al trabajo enfermos por no tener licencia con goce de sueldo por enfermedad y por la posibilidad de ser penalizados si se quedan en su casa.
Not All Schools Can #KeepLearning
While educators promote online learning as coronavirus spreads, some Illinois students aren’t equipped with the broadband to even notice.
The Coronavirus Testing Paradox
Administering coronavirus tests requires time and supplies that are already running out. But aggressive testing has proven to be the best way to track and isolate the disease, stopping its spread. The best path forward depends on where you are.
Updated: Dollars for Docs
How much are your doctors being paid by drug or device companies? Look them up in our newly updated database.
The Birth-Tissue Profiteers
How well-meaning donations end up fueling an unproven, virtually unregulated $2 billion stem cell industry.
See How Your Doctor or Provider’s Prescribing Patterns Compare
Medicare’s popular prescription-drug program serves more than 42 million people and pays for more than one of every four prescriptions written nationwide. Use this tool to find and compare over 460,000 doctors and other providers who wrote over 50 prescriptions in Part D in 2016.
Oregon Officials Call for Changes of Laws on Criminally Insane
The state’s attorney general said the rate of recidivism among defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity is “too high,” and key lawmakers said they plan to rewrite the state’s laws after an analysis by the Malheur Enterprise and ProPublica.
What Oregon Officials Knew and When They Knew It
Members of the Psychiatric Security Review Board have said it is not their duty to track what happens to people they set free. But in private, board members and staff pushed to study recidivism and found high rates among people the board frees.
“We Will Keep on Fighting for Him.”
After her 10-year-old was accepted into a clinical drug trial for bipolar disorder, a mother chronicled her family’s experiences. Here is their journey, in their own words.
The Child Abuse Contrarian
Michael Holick, a renowned scientist turned expert witness, relies on his own controversial theory to help alleged abusers avoid prison and regain custody of the babies they were accused of harming.
Black Patients Miss Out On Promising Cancer Drugs
A ProPublica analysis found that black people and Native Americans are under-represented in clinical trials of new drugs, even when the treatment is aimed at a type of cancer that disproportionately affects them.
Famed Houston Surgeon Updates Conflict-of-Interest Disclosures
ProPublica and the Houston Chronicle reported in May that Dr. O.H. “Bud” Frazier had often failed to disclose his payments from medical device makers in articles he authored. Since then, he’s amended his disclosures for three pieces in the New England Journal of Medicine.
FDA Repays Industry by Rushing Risky Drugs to Market
As pharma companies underwrite three-fourths of the FDA’s budget for scientific reviews, the agency is increasingly fast-tracking expensive drugs with significant side effects and unproven health benefits.
As Wait for New Heart Got Longer, Patient Grew Sicker
Baylor St. Luke’s in Houston was known for handling complex heart transplants. But when Travis Hogan was a patient there, he didn’t know that the program was undergoing a series of dramatic changes. He never got his heart.
Broken Hearts
ProPublica and the Houston Chronicle investigate troubles at Baylor St. Luke’s Hospital in Houston, where an illustrious heart program has recently had some of the worst outcomes in the country.
The Price They Pay
ProPublica and The New York Times have partnered to tell the stories of Americans living daily with the reality of high-cost drugs. There are millions of others just like them.
Treating a Common Children’s Ailment Isn’t Cheap
When Aviva Williams’ daughter got pinworms, her doctor prescribed albendazole, a prescription treatment that has been around for decades. Williams thought little of it, until she checked the price: $724 for a four-tablet treatment.
Unnecessary Medical Care Is More Common Than You Think
A study in Washington state found that in a single year more than 600,000 patients underwent treatment they didn’t need, at an estimated cost of $282 million. “Do no harm” should include the cost of care, too, the report author says.
We’ve Updated Prescriber Checkup
Medicare’s popular prescription-drug program serves more than 42 million people and pays for more than one of every four prescriptions written nationwide. Use this tool to find and compare doctors and other providers in Part D in 2015.
Accreditors Can Keep Their Hospital Inspection Reports Secret, Feds Decide
Reversing course, federal health officials withdrew a proposal that would have required private accrediting organizations to publicly release reports of problems they found in health care facilities. Accreditors and hospitals had panned the idea; consumer advocates and business groups supported it.
The Myth of Drug Expiration Dates
Hospitals and pharmacies are required to toss expired drugs, no matter how expensive or vital. Meanwhile the FDA has long known that many remain safe and potent for years longer.
Lost Mothers
An estimated 700 to 900 women in the U.S. died from pregnancy-related causes in 2016. We have identified 120 of them so far.
The Last Person You’d Expect to Die in Childbirth
The U.S. has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world, and 60 percent are preventable. The death of Lauren Bloomstein, a neonatal nurse, in the hospital where she worked illustrates a profound disparity: the health care system focuses on babies but often ignores their mothers.
America’s Other Drug Problem
Every year nursing homes nationwide flush, burn or throw out tons of valuable prescription drugs. Iowa collects them and gives them to needy patients for free. Most other states don’t.
What Hospitals Waste
The nation’s health care tab is sky-high. We’re tracking down the reasons. First stop: A look at all the perfectly good stuff hospitals throw away.
When Evidence Says No, But Doctors Say Yes
Years after research contradicts common practices, patients continue to demand them and doctors continue to deliver. The result is an epidemic of unnecessary and unhelpful treatment.
