Provide names of other journalists involved.
Patricia Murphy- Reporter Jim Gates-Editor
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
2/1/2012
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Diabetes is an epidemic. It’s also billion dollar industry rife with fraud, waste and abuse that disproportionately targets the elderly and under-insured. At the center is a small test strip used by diabetics to check their blood sugar levels. Patients who chose to sell their test strips for small sums of money rather then monitor their blood sugar sacrifice their health. This ultimately costs taxpayers and rate-payers millions more in often preventable healthcare costs. Conversely, this grey market is supported by under-insured diabetics who are forced to buy discounted test strips online from brokers because they can’t afford to pay for high priced test strips from a legitimate pharmacy.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
We started by searching for test strip buyers on Craigslist. After we learned about the market we used Inspector General reports which documented nearly 200 million dollars of abuse and fraud nationally. We used public records requests, business/tax filings, litigation records and Accurint to get a good picture of the scale of the grey market around test strips. It’s a massive market. It’s so big that we had a difficult time trying to decide what was most important for our listening audience.
Explain types of human sources used.
We spoke with test strip brokers on and off the record about who they deal with and why this market is so lucrative. We also talked with the FDA, Department of Health and Human Services, Physicians, patients, private insurers, test strip manufacturers and durable medical goods providers.
Results:
We learned about a sad and shady grey market propagated by poverty and greed.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No. We heard from physicians who were surprised by our story. One said he would be more cautious not to over-prescribe test supplies. Others were concerned because they routinely sent their under-insured patients to the internet for discounted supplies. Until now they were unaware of the risk or where those supplies were coming from.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Do your homework. By documenting the supply chain for these items through the Medicare system we were able to get a good look at the national and even international scope of this issue.