May 4, 2012, 12:05 AM
A Prime Healthcare Services hospital in Redding broke state law when it publicized a patient’s confidential medical files in an effort to discredit a California Watch news report, state regulators say. The state Department of Public Health on Tuesday issued five "deficiencies"...
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January 9, 2012, 12:05 AM
FBI agents interviewed a former Shasta County hospital patient Friday amid indications of a widening federal inquiry into Medicare billing practices at the Prime Healthcare Services hospital chain. Darlene Courtois, 64, who was featured in a California Watch report last month about unusual...
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December 19, 2011, 3:01 PM
Darlene Courtois describes herself as overweight, not emaciated, so she was surprised to learn that her hospital billed Medicare for treating her for kwashiorkor, a dangerous form of malnutrition.
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December 16, 2011, 12:41 AM
Stephen K. Doig’s specialty is the analysis of large government datasets, a technique called precision journalism, which uses software to reveal patterns.
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December 16, 2011, 12:12 AM
To report this story, California Watch relied on Medicare data, hospital records and, critically, government billing records normally kept secret.
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December 16, 2011, 12:09 AM
Darlene Courtois had never heard of kwashiorkor, a dangerous form of malnutrition, but records show her hospital billed Medicare for treating the condition anyway.
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Daily Report:
December 16, 2011, 12:08 AM
Journalists find stories in all sorts of places. I have spent much of my journalism career, both in newsrooms and classrooms, finding stories in data. That’s how I found myself crunching data for California Watch, a nonprofit investigative news operation that is part of the Center for...
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December 16, 2011, 12:08 AM
Hospitals have a lot of discretion when deciding what to include in their bills to Medicare, which in 2010 paid out more than $500 billion to health providers.
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October 24, 2011, 12:05 AM
Federal prosecutors in Maryland have filed a false claims lawsuit against a hospital that reported an outbreak of a rare Third World nutritional disorder among its Medicare patients. In the complaint, the government said Kernan Hospital in Baltimore fraudulently billed Medicare about $1.6...
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July 11, 2011, 12:05 AM
The Prime Healthcare Services Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Prime Healthcare Services, is seeking judicial approval to buy Victor Valley Community Hospital in bankruptcy court tomorrow, a move that, if successful, might expand the reach of the controversial hospital chain. Prime added one...
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February 19, 2011, 4:05 PM
Diagnosing patients with certain types of malnutrition and a rare form called kwashiorkor can help earn bonus payments for hospitals billing for Medicare.
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February 19, 2011, 4:05 PM
Patients covered by Medicare do not tend to see the diagnostic codes that form the basis for government payment to hospitals. Here's how it works.
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February 19, 2011, 4:05 PM
California Watch used public records to compare how frequently California hospitals diagnose malnutrition among older patients when their care is paid for by the federal Medicare system.
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