Welcome to 51˶'s Investigative Roundup, highlighting the best pieces published in the past week with in-depth examinations of healthcare issues. As usual, our inbox is open to your ideas for issues to explore next.
Counting Opioid Suicides Proves Difficult
Kaiser Health News looks into how many of the record tally of opioid deaths can actually be considered suicides. Massachusetts, which began exploring the issue, found only 2% of opioid deaths could be confirmed as suicides. may fall into that category, other research indicates. And that could be exacerbating both problems: both opioid deaths and suicide rates are at historical highs.
How New York Let a Sexual Predator Practice
The about Nasim Haider, MD, who racked up nearly 30 misconduct charges at three different medical practices over more than two decades before finally getting his medical license revoked. Haider asked female patients about their sexual habits and groped or molested his generally immigrant patients. That he was allowed to continue even after fines and other punishment was "the result of a systematic breakdown inside the New York State Department of Health that led to an abusive doctor retaining his license for years while the agency charged with enforcing professional standards failed to notice," the story says.
Med Boards Silent After FDA Intervention
That piece has echoes of our own "States of Disgrace" series, which published another main piece of the puzzle last week. While previous stories established that medical boards ignore or miss the actions of other states, it turns out they also miss the actions of the FDA, too. The stories of two physicians who performed a controversial procedure to treat multiple sclerosis show how, even when the FDA steps in, boards are slow to act.
One California physician has been the subject of multiple warning letters from the FDA with no action -- even after one patient died. A second physician has been ordered to repay many of his patients but still has a clean license in two states.
California Threatens To Kick Hospitals Off ACA Marketplace
KQED, the San Francisco NPR affiliate, has a scoop about negotiations for the state's next version of the insurance marketplace. Any hospital that doesn't meet certain quality benchmarks will be . The targets require hospitals to perform fewer unnecessary C-sections, prescribe fewer opioids, and cut back on the use of imaging. The effort could have an impact on insurers around the country, some industry experts say.
Opioids Are to Advertising as Benzos Are to ... What?
The effort to hold someone, anyone, responsible for the opioid crisis is increasingly turning to advertising as a way to get directly at manufacturers. But if that's true, published last week, what's to explain the dramatic rise of benzodiazepines? While opioid deaths are up fourfold over roughly the last 20 years, deaths involving benzodiazepines are up nearly 700% -- and all without any advertising.
Some academics wonder is there's a sociocultural explanation, an argument the article seems to support.