http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog Keeping journalists informed – and connected. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:45:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Paula Span of The New York Times clearly struck a nerve with her recent story about an upscale retirement community's decision to exclude certain residents from its country-club style dining room. The residents in question lived in assisted living apartments or a nursing home that are part of the Norfolk, Va., ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/dining-decision-brings-discrimination-issues-in-aging-to-forefront-lessons-for-reporters/ Members of AHCJ have been busy! Here's the latest update on our members who have won awards, taken new jobs and have other news of interest. Beryl Lieff Benderly is this year's winner of the IEEE-USA Award for Distinguished Literary Contributions Furthering the Public Understanding of the Profession (of engineering) for ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/ahcj-member-news-the-latest-on-awards-new-assignments-and-more/ In the latest installment of his ongoing investigation for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today, John Fauber looks for the source of America's prescription painkiller boom (graphic), outlining what he describes as "a network of pain organizations, doctors and researchers that pushed for expanded use of the drugs while ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/network-drives-increase-in-painkiller-prescriptions/ AHCJ member Christina Jewett, a reporter at California Watch, was honored alongside her colleagues, Lance Williams and Steven K. Doig, with the George Polk Award in Medical Reporting for her work on "Decoding Prime," a yearlong investigative series that exposed how a California-based hospital chain billed Medicare for rare conditions and ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/polk-award-recognizes-reporting-on-unusual-medicare-claims-reimbursements/ The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should create an easily usable and searchable database when it publishes information from drug and device makers about payments to physicians, according to comments (PDF) submitted by the Association of Health Care Journalists  on proposed rules for carrying out the Physician Payment ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/ahcj-calls-for-accessible-reporting-of-physician-payments/ National Guardsmen and reservists returning from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan "have been hastily channeled through a post-deployment process that has been plagued with difficulties, including reliance on self-reporting to identify health problems," according to an investigation by graduate students in Northwestern University's Medill School. Photo by The National Guard via ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/medical-support-network-lacking-for-returning-national-guard-reservists/ Most of us know that in 2014, states will open health insurance exchanges (or the federal government will run a backup exchange for them) But actually states are running two exchanges – one for individuals and one for small businesses, known as Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) exchanges. To the ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/states-responsible-for-health-insurance-exchanges-for-small-businesses/ Please welcome AHCJ’s newest members. All new members are welcome to stop by this post’s comment section to introduce themselves. Lacey Avery, student, University of Georgia, Watkinsville, Ga. (@lacey_avery) Jeff Cohen, reporter, WNPR, Middletown, Conn. (@ctcapitalregion) David Corcoran, deputy science editor, The New York Times, New York (@dacorc) June Cross, ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/ahcjs-ranks-continue-to-grow-welcome-these-new-members/ Three senators are asking the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the oversight provided by state medical boards after several recent media reports questioning the supervision of physicians in the country. Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) sent a ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/senators-request-inquiry-into-state-medical-boards/ When Ryan McNeill of The Dallas Morning News recently wrote for AHCJ about that paper's investigation into patient care and safety at Parkland Memorial Hospital, he noted that the institution narrowly avoided being shut down by the federal government by agreeing to a rare form of oversight. That oversight included a ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2012/02/cms-ordered-report-withheld-by-hospital-reveals-hundreds-of-deficiencies/