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Coronavirus

New York Wants Health Workers to Join the Fight Against COVID-19. Will It Pick Up Their Medical Bills if They Get Sick?

States are recruiting retirees, recent graduates and other health professionals to help overwhelmed hospitals, but if they contract the virus while serving patients, they could be on the hook for any out-of-pocket medical costs.

by Sean Campbell and Talia Buford

Coronavirus

“I’m Terrified”: Pregnant Health Care Workers at Risk for Coronavirus Are Being Forced to Keep Working

Pregnant doctors, nurses and medical support staff have continued going to work, whether they want to or not, even as the latest research on coronavirus and pregnancy has caused a new sense of worry.

by Nina Martin and Bernice Yeung

Coronavirus

Hospitals Have Left Many COVID-19 Patients Who Don’t Speak English Alone, Confused and Without Proper Care

One medical worker told us: “It takes 10 minutes of sitting on the phone to get an interpreter, and that’s valuable time when you’re inundated. So this utilitarian calculus kicks in. And the patients that are most mainstream get the best care.”

by Joshua Kaplan

Blood Will Tell

33 Years After Dubious Evidence Helped Convict Him, Joe Bryan Has Been Released on Parole

His murder conviction rested largely on bloodstain-pattern analysis, a technique still in use throughout the criminal justice system, despite concerns about its reliability.

by Pamela Colloff

Coronavirus

Having Trouble With Your Rent, Mortgage or Debts? We Want to Hear From You.

Will banks, landlords and other debt collectors work with people who’ve lost income because of the coronavirus crisis? Help us find out.

by Paul Kiel and Jeff Ernsthausen

¿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.

por Michael Grabell

A Major Medical Staffing Company Just Slashed Benefits for Doctors and Nurses Fighting Coronavirus

Alteon Health, backed by private-equity firms Frazier Healthcare Partners and New Mountain Capital, will cut salaries, time off and retirement benefits for providers, citing lost revenue. Several hospital operators announced similar cuts.

by Isaac Arnsdorf

Reporter Tony Briscoe to Join ProPublica Illinois

by ProPublica Illinois

An Employee at an Illinois School We Reported On Has Been Charged With Battering a 7-Year-Old Boy

A ProPublica and Chicago Tribune investigation found that schools throughout the state misused seclusion and restraint tactics against Illinois children. The criminal case is the second in the last year of an employee charged with mistreating a child.

by Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune, and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica

Taxpayers Paid Millions to Design a Low-Cost Ventilator for a Pandemic. Instead, the Company Is Selling Versions of It Overseas.

As coronavirus sweeps the globe, there is not a single Trilogy Evo Universal ventilator — developed with government funds — in the U.S. stockpile. Meanwhile, Royal Philips N.V. has sold higher-priced versions to clients around the world.

by Patricia Callahan, Sebastian Rotella and Tim Golden

He Was Ordered to Self-Isolate. He Didn’t. Now He’s Facing Criminal Charges.

A man with coronavirus symptoms walked into a busy gas station store in southeastern Illinois. Prosecutors there charged him with reckless conduct, saying the man “showed a willful and wanton disregard for the safety of others.”

by Jodi S. Cohen

ProPublica Wins Three SABEW Awards for Business Journalism

by ProPublica

Sen. Burr Faces DOJ Investigation for Selling a Fortune in Stocks Right Before the Market Crashed

The investigation comes after ProPublica reported that the North Carolina lawmaker unloaded a significant portion of his total stock holdings before the coronavirus sell-off in the stock market.

by Robert Faturechi

Life on a Block With an Emergency Morgue Truck: “We Hear the Hum of the Refrigerator Going All Night Long”

On a block in Brooklyn sits a refrigerated morgue truck. Marc Kozlow walks his dog, Hank, past it. He hears the refrigerator at night. He watches the bodies being loaded and unloaded. “Prepare for this,” he told ProPublica.

by Annie Waldman

“Now I Can Afford My Meds.” After Months of Appeals, Retiree’s Medicaid Benefits Are Restored.

South Carolina’s Medicaid agency abruptly and unexpectedly canceled Judith Persutti’s insurance in 2019, but reinstated it following a little-used appeals process.

by Akilah Johnson

The Chicago Housing Authority Was Slow to Protect Residents During the Coronavirus Outbreak

Internal communications show CHA officials waited weeks before hastily drawing up plans that could reduce the risk of coronavirus exposure for staff and residents.

by Mick Dumke

What We Know — and Don’t Know — About Possible Coronavirus Treatments Promoted by Trump

There isn’t enough evidence that decades-old anti-malarial drugs work for the treatment or prevention of coronavirus, but here’s what we do know so far.

by Charles Ornstein

Expired Respirators. Reused Masks. Nurses in the Nation’s Original Covid-19 Epicenter Offer Sobering Accounts of What Could Come.

When nurses at one Washington State hospital complained about having to use expired respirators, they allege that staff were ordered to remove stickers showing the equipment was years out of date.

by Ken Armstrong and Vianna Davila

What Happens If Workers Cutting Up the Nation’s Meat Get Sick?

As meatpackers rush to meet demand, their employees are starting to get COVID-19. But some workers say they’re going to work ill because they don’t have paid sick days and can be penalized for staying home.

by Michael Grabell

This VA Hospital Cited “Misleading” Data to Restrict Mask Use for Health Care Workers

Workers at a VA hospital in New Mexico have been told not to wear face masks in certain cases, even though earlier CDC guidance said masks can protect against spread of the coronavirus.

by Bryant Furlow, New Mexico In Depth, and Maya Miller, ProPublica

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