{
  "id": "1998-february-health-care-hints",
  "slug": "1998-february-health-care-hints",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-february-health-care-hints.html",
  "year": 1998,
  "month": "February",
  "monthNum": 2,
  "headline": "Health care hints",
  "kicker": "HANDOUT OF THE MONTH",
  "author_name": "Sarah Cohen",
  "author_title": "Training Director",
  "affiliation": "NICAR",
  "summary": "Health care reporters have access to numerous public data sources including hospital discharge databases, financial records, Medicare reports, insurance payouts, and physician disciplinary records that can reveal important stories about hospital operations, doctor performance, and insurance company practices.",
  "keywords": [
    "healthcare",
    "databases",
    "records"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Health & Environment",
    "Data & Databases",
    "Investigative Methods"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "9-track tape",
    "Internet",
    "World Wide Web"
  ],
  "full_text": "Whether you care about doctors, managed care companies, insurance or employee benefits, there's no shortage of data sources for stories in the beat. Each piece of the industry is either heavily regulated or heavily supported by taxpayers, making the records readily available. Here's a taste of what's waiting for you.\n\nHospitals and nursing homes\n\nIt's easiest to start with the biggest, most subsidized and often still regulated industries. Hospital Discharge Databases: The motherlode of data for health care reporters is often in what's known as the \"discharge database\" for each state. Not all states release it. An alternative is the federal Medicare database of hospital discharges, which includes less detail about doctors but adds an important element - whether the patient was readmitted or died soon after release. Discharge data has been used to document the shift toward shorter hospital stays, to find doctors who would talk about reasons for leaving certain hospitals, to identify list prices, or to figure out which procedures managed care companies will cover.\n\nHospital financial records: Don't think these are only for business stories. They include important information on the staffing levels hospitals, the amount of charity care given, and you can estimate how much a nonprofit actually spends-rather than charges-on the care it gives away in return for its special status. Often available through your state health agency or a hospital association in a simpler form.\n\nMedicare cost reports: Any Medicare service that's based on costs rather than fixed prices has become a windfall for some companies. They get paid on the honor system. Then they submit the costs to justify it. Medicare sells these records.\n\nMedicare labor rates: Average wages in each area are used to determine how much hospitals in each area are paid under Medicare. You can use them to figure out how much (or little) employees in your area are making in hospitals.\n\nInsurance records\n\nThese are all under state law. You'll often have to type in the simpler records, like financial reports, yourself. But others are available on tape or database in many states. Malpractice payouts: This is a list of every malpractice claim paid through insurers. In Tampa, reporters found a doctor who had been sued repeatedly over a controversial orthopedic procedure, which included washing bones he used in the operation with a garden hose in his backyard.\n\nWorker's compensation claims: Some private vendors sell access to workers' comp claims by employer.\n\nFinancial records: Any Medicare HMO and many Medicaid HMOs are required to maintain a certain number of private-pay patients, usually through employers. As one official put it, \"private industry will demand standards\" that regulators can't enforce. Look for HMOs that depend too heavily on Medicare payments. If nothing else, Medicare can cut them off from the program.\n\nPhysician and other professional records\n\nYes, the National Practitioners Databank is closed to us. But some companies are compiling records held in it and selling them to anyone who wants to check on disciplinary actions against their doctors in other states. Other databases that may come in handy are:\n\nUPIN numbers: These are the key identifiers that doctors get so they can get paid by Medicare. Having UPINs will open a world of information to you, especially if you get billing records. The tape costs about $200 from the Health Care Finance Agency. Corporate records and partnerships: As physicians form associations to vie for managed care contracts, you can learn more about their business dealings by looking through your state's corporate records. Check the 990 summaries at www.irs.ustreas.gov and look under Statistics of Income for the Exempt Organization master list.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1995-june-medical-coverage-sites",
      "score": 0.38
    },
    {
      "slug": "2000-januaryfebruary-where-to-look-for-data",
      "score": 0.282
    },
    {
      "slug": "1998-may-wrestling-giants",
      "score": 0.255
    },
    {
      "slug": "2001-julyaugust-internet-health-data",
      "score": 0.255
    },
    {
      "slug": "1996-november-from-the-nicar-library",
      "score": 0.222
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-february-health-care-hints.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-february-health-care-hints.json"
}