A bill to require background checks for drug rehab clinic owners advanced in the California Legislature, clearing the Senate Health Committee with unanimous support.
Health Care
Flaws in the U.S. health care system, federal health programs and with individual medical providers and patients
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care Scams
CIR wins IRE award for investigation of rampant fraud at rehab clinics
CIR and CNN receive a national award from Investigative Reporters and Editors for a series that exposed rampant fraud in California drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinics.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care
Abuse findings continue at developmental centers, despite state scrutiny
In 2012, a resident at the Lanterman Developmental Center in Los Angeles County was found to have blunt force trauma in her genital area. The case is unsolved.Carlos Puma for CIR She is known in public records as Client 98, a disabled woman living at the Lanterman Developmental Center, a state-run board-and-care facility in Los […]
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Posted inHealth Care, Health Care for Veterans, Opiates, Returning Home to Battle
Action on the VA’s pain pill habit
On our debut pilot, reporter Aaron Glantz uncovered how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been prescribing highly addictive pain medications at an alarming rate. He returns to the show to discuss how lawmakers might address the spike in opiate prescriptions.
Posted inHealth Care, Prisons
Bill seeks new restrictions on sterilizations in California prisons
Legislation introduced by state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson would limit sterilization surgeries in all state prisons, county jails and other detention ce
Posted inHealth Care, Prisons
Calif. prison doctor linked to sterilizations no stranger to controversy
California prison doctor linked to hundreds of inmate sterilizations has a history of malpractice settlements and patient complaints.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care
Officials, advocates at odds over handling of caregiver abuse cases
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Officials from the California Department of Public Health and long-term care advocates clashed today at an Assembly oversight hearing over regulators’ ability to process complaints of abuse against nursing assistants. They couldn’t even agree on the number of abuse allegations that have yet to be investigated. Evon Lenerd, a state health department […]
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care Scams
Medi-Cal agency to overhaul drug rehab program after critical audit
California’s Medi-Cal agency is launching an overhaul of its drug rehabilitation program in light of a damning internal audit that spotlights ham-handed oversight and confirms many findings of a yearlong investigation by The Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN. The Department of Health Care Services pledged a multitude of changes in a report to the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care Scams
Governor’s budget proposes funding to improve Drug Medi-Cal oversight
Gov. Jerry Brown, seen in 2013.Beck Diefenbach/Associated Press Gov. Jerry Brown wants to add some firepower to the crackdown on fraud in California’s drug and alcohol rehabilitation program for the poor. The governor’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year, officially announced today, includes $2.2 million for 21 new positions to help health officials with […]
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care Scams
Calif. rehab clinics recruit group home residents to pad client lists
Los Angeles-area clinics bus in group home residents to fill client lists, regardless of whether they have addictions.