Health care is a massive beat, so we've broken it down to start with a basic lesson on covering hospitals. This guide is by Karl Stark, health & science editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The widely reported story about the California retirement facility whose staff refused to perform CPR on a dying resident – despite the exhortations of a 911 dispatcher — probably has quite a few members of your audience wondering what they’ve signed up for, or not, in terms of services at retirement, assisted living and nursing [...]
As the March 1 implementation of some $85 billion in automatic spending cuts (the sequester) draws near, you may be looking for additional ways to illustrate the effects on local businesses and consumers. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the Washington Post’s online graphic that synthesizes the White House’s report on the potential effects of the cuts on [...]
I couldn’t resist using the phrase “eyeball wars” from Kathleen Haughney’s story in today’s headline. After all, that’s what drew me to her Sun Sentinel piece about ophthalmologists fighting optometrists’ push to prescribe medications. Apparently, turf wars aren’t uncommon. “Turf battles exist among many parts of the medical profession, though some depend on what laws are [...]
I attended a meeting the other day at which the refreshment supplier had failed to provide any diet sodas. Most attendees recoiled at the full-calorie offerings and swigged water instead. One maverick who cracked open a regular Pepsi might as well have lit up a Marlboro right in the conference room, for all of the [...]
Mother Nature is having her way with the economy again, but this time via a microscopic virus rather than a gargantuan storm, earthquake or tidal wave. Ominous headlines about the magnitude of this year’s flu season are spilling onto business pages, and you might want to take a run at several financial angles to influenza [...]
After a little too much eggnog, sugar cookies and credit-card swiping in December, many consumers feel the urge for a little self-improvement in January, and there are a number of industries out there which count the first quarter of the year, not the fourth, as their annual make-it-or-break-it season. From fitness to organizing to matchmaking, [...]
It’s a pretty safe bet that health care and health insurance will be among the hottest business stories of 2013, with new provisions of the Affordable Care Act kicking in, as well as some of its limitations getting more scrutiny now that the Supreme Court has upheld the law. For example, check out the Sunday [...]
By Ames Alexander, Joseph Neff, and Karen Garloch In 2009, as the debate about health care reform picked up steam in Washington, D.C., an editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., posed a question: Should the newspaper take a deep look at the cost of health care? A series of interviews and some [...]
The month of December is speeding past as financial journalists juggle seasonal narratives from holiday shopping to the “fiscal cliff.” To liven up the mix, here are a few Quicktips on topics that risk getting lost in the Santa shuffle yet are worthy topics for business and economy features: Doomsday. According to some believers, shopping [...]
