Charles Ornstein

ProPublica found that drugmakers spent less to market opioids to doctors in 2016 than in prior years. Studies have shown that payments to doctors are linked to more prescriptions for the drugs.

One-third of all Medicare recipients were prescribed opioids last year, the HHS inspector general says, with more than half a million getting high doses for at least three months.

Some states are seeking to make major changes in their Medicaid programs that would end coverage for millions of people, even if the Affordable Care Act isn't repealed.

Doctors were more likely to choose generic drugs over pricier brand names when teaching hospitals limited access by pharmaceutical sales representatives, a study finds.

The federal government wants to require that private accreditors release reports of problems they find during hospital inspections. Right now, the reports are kept confidential.

In 2014, the government said health providers would have to register with Medicare in order to prescribe drugs to beneficiaries. Delays have pushed back the requirement until 2019.

The wholesalers that move medicines between drug companies and pharmacies have been fined for failing to call out suspicious transactions involving opioids.

Several new studies document widespread conflicts of interest in medicine. The way we think about disease "is being subtly distorted" by financial ties, the authors of an accompanying editorial write.

In 2011, just 41 health care providers prescribed more than $5 million each in medicines under Medicare Part D. In 2015, that number was 514. The rise of expensive hepatitis C drugs is a factor.

After ProPublica identified dozens of cases of dehumanizing photos posted on social media sites, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services unveiled a plan to increase oversight.

Iowa health officials recently discovered it wasn't against state law for a nursing home worker to share a photo on Snapchat of a resident covered in feces. They are trying to change that.

A hospital's location and whether it is for-profit make a big difference in the share of its doctors taking industry payments like meals, travel and speaking fees. Check out the ProPublica analysis.

Researchers say the time doctors spend with drug company representatives when they are dropping off meals is probably more important than the food in influencing prescription choices.

ProPublica's Charles Ornstein spoke with Niall Brennan about making health data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services more widely available outside the government.

An analysis of Medicare data shows that the more money a doctor gets from pharmaceutical companies, the more likely he or she is to prescribe brand-name medications. And that influences cost.

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow Tuesday to nascent efforts to track the quality and cost of health care, ruling that a 1974 law precludes states from requiring that every health care claim involving their residents be submitted to a massive database.

The arguments were arcane, but the ...

When Anthony McCann opened a thick manila envelope from the Department of Veterans Affairs last year, he expected to find his own medical records inside.

Instead, he found over 250 pages of deeply revealing personal information on another veteran's mental health.

"It had everything about him, and I could ...

Regulators have logged dozens, even hundreds of complaints against some health providers for violating federal patient privacy law. Warnings are doled out privately, and sanctions are rarely imposed.

Improper access to the medical information of celebrities and people in the news has been a bane of health systems around the country for years. The proliferation of electronic medical records systems has made it easier to track and punish those who peek in records for no legitimate reason.

Below ...

Breaches that expose the health details of just a patient or two are proliferating nationwide. Regulators focus on larger privacy breaches and rarely take action on small ones, despite their harm.