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Charles Ornstein

Charles Ornstein

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Charles Ornstein, in collaboration with Tracy Weber, was a lead reporter on a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times titled "The Troubles at King/Drew" hospital that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for public service in 2005. His ProPublica series, with Tracy Weber, "When Caregivers Harm: California's Unwatched Nurses" was a finalist for a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Ornstein reported for the Times starting in 2001, in the last five years largely in partnership with Weber. Earlier, Ornstein spent five years as a reporter for the Dallas Morning News. He is president of the Association of Health Care Journalists and a former Kaiser Family Foundation media fellow.

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Articles

How We Analyzed Medicare’s Drug Data

ProPublica obtained Medicare Part D data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Freedom of Information Act. Here follows more information about the data and how we analyzed it.

Prescriber Checkup

Medicare’s popular prescription-drug program now serves more than 35 million people, but the names of prescribers and the drugs they choose have never previously been public. Use this tool to find and compare doctors and other top prescribers in 2010.

Medicare Drug Program Fails to Monitor Prescribers, Putting Seniors and Disabled at Risk

Prescription data obtained by ProPublica shows wide use of antipsychotics, narcotics and other drugs dangerous for older adults, but Medicare officials say it’s not their job to look for unsafe prescribing or weed out doctors with troubled backgrounds.

Eight Ways to Strengthen Medicare’s Drug Benefit

Former government officials, analysts and researchers say Medicare could improve oversight of its Part D drug benefit with these steps.

Dollars for Docs Mints a Millionaire

New data show drugmakers’ payments to hundreds of thousands of doctors, and some have made well over $500,000.

About the Dollars for Docs Data

Details behind our drug company money database.

How Mom’s Death Changed My Thinking About End-of-Life Care

One-fourth of Medicare spending occurs in the final year of life. But behind the oft-cited statistic are real families making agonizing decisions with outcomes that can’t be reversed. 

Feds to Publicize Drug and Device Company Payments to Doctors Next Year

After a long delay, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published final rules for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which would bring transparency to financial relationships between physicians and industry.

Feds Release Nursing Home Inspections, Free of Censor’s Marks

The unredacted documents include patients’ ages, medical conditions, medications and other data omitted from inspection reports on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website.

Updated Nursing Home Inspection Tool

We’ve updated our app with new data and a new design, making it easier to find nursing home problems in your state.

Two Deaths, Wildly Different Penalties: The Big Disparities in Nursing Home Oversight

ProPublica’s updated Nursing Home Inspect tool shows that government fails to ensure consistent penalties for nursing homes in different states.

What’s New In Nursing Home Inspect

The 10 Most Common Nursing Home Violations

We’ve updated our searchable Nursing Home Inspect database to cover more than a quarter million deficiencies found at U.S. nursing homes.

High-Prescribing Chicago Psychiatrist Faces Federal Fraud Suit

Dr. Michael Reinstein, subject of a 2009 investigation by ProPublica and The Chicago Tribune, is accused of taking kickbacks while providing antipsychotics to thousands of indigent nursing home patients.

New York’s Ongoing Blackout: Hospitals in Lower Manhattan

There is no firm timetable on the return of some of New York’s largest hospitals. And concern is rising that the patchwork system can’t last for long.

The Outlook for “Obamacare” in Two Maps

How states handle Medicaid and new insurance exchanges will determine if President Obama’s re-election victory gives his healthcare overhaul a boost.

Why Do Hospital Generators Keep Failing?

The power failure at New York University Langone Medical Center during Hurricane Sandy shows that hospitals still may not be doing enough to prepare for disasters.

Search Our Nursing Home Inspection Data, Now With Thousands of New Reports

New government data expands our searchable cache of nursing home inspection reports to include details about 217,000 reported deficiencies.

Now On Nursing Home Inspect: 140,000-Plus Inspection Reports

Our super-fast news app lets users easily find violations at nursing homes nationwide.

Nursing Home Inspect Update: More Homes, More Violations

Our Nursing Home Inspect news app now contains more than 134,600 deficiencies from nearly every nursing home in the United States. News organizations have identified many problems at homes in their communities.

Charles Ornstein

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