Charles Ornstein

Managing Editor, Local

Photo of Charles Ornstein

Charles Ornstein is managing editor, local, overseeing ProPublica’s local initiatives. These include offices in the Midwest, South, Southwest and Northwest, a joint initiative with the Texas Tribune, and the Local Reporting Network, which works with local news organizations to produce accountability journalism on issues of importance to their communities. From 2008 to 2017, he was a senior reporter covering health care and the pharmaceutical industry. He then worked as a senior editor and deputy managing editor.

Prior to joining ProPublica, he was a member of the metro investigative projects team at the Los Angeles Times. In 2004, he and Tracy Weber were lead authors on a series on Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a troubled hospital in South Los Angeles. The articles won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service.

In 2009, he and Weber worked on a series of stories that detailed serious failures in oversight by the California Board of Registered Nursing and nursing boards around the country. The work was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for public service.

Projects edited or co-edited by Ornstein have won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, the Scripps Howard Impact Award, the IRE Award, the Online Journalism Award and other major journalism honors.

He previously worked at the Dallas Morning News, where he covered health care on the business desk and worked in the Washington bureau. Ornstein is a past president of the Association of Health Care Journalists and an adjunct journalism professor at Columbia University. Ornstein is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Medicare’s Drug Program Needs Stronger Protections Against Fraud, Watchdog Says

A new report finds that more than half of insurance companies in Medicare’s drug program haven’t reported fraud cases to the government. The findings echo an earlier ProPublica investigation that found fraud flourishing in the program.

As Full Disclosure Nears, Doctors’ Pay for Drug Talks Plummets

As transparency increases and blockbuster drugs lose patent protection, drug companies have dramatically scaled back payments to doctors for promotional talks. This fall, all drug and medical device companies will be required to report payments to doctors.

Freed of Disclosure Requirement, Drug Maker Pulls Doctor Payments Offline

Drugmaker Cephalon had been required to post its payments to doctors online as part of a lawsuit settlement. After its agreement expired, it removed them from its website.

When a University Hospital Backs a Surgical Robot, Controversy Ensues

The former head of a prestigious Boston hospital found it unsettling that the surgical staff of an Illinois university medical center endorsed the medical device in an ad in the New York Times Magazine. After he started asking questions, the hospital asked that the ad be suspended.

Many Unanswered Questions in Obamacare Enrollment Report

The Obama administration reports a big jump in sign-ups under Affordable Care Act, but it didn’t break down how many enrollees paid their premiums, how many were previously uninsured and which plans they chose.

Obamacare’s Market Share Mystery: Will the Health Law Shake Up Insurance Leader Board?

A handful of states have released enrollment figures for insurance plans on their insurance exchanges. Those with the most sign-ups were market leaders in the days before the Affordable Care Act.

Epic Fail: Where Four State Health Exchanges Went Wrong

Oregon, Minnesota, Maryland and Massachusetts are still struggling to get back on track after a disastrous launch that makes HealthCare.gov look successful by comparison.

As the Media Gets Bored With Obamacare, Is the Public Starting to Get on Board?

The president of the Commonwealth Fund says the implementation of the act is going pretty well, all things considered. He said it will be a success if 5 million people enroll in private exchanges by March 31. The 2016 election will be the “ultimate and probably final judgment on the law,” he says.

Can’t Get Through to Your Health Insurer? Vent on Twitter

Consumers sometimes find that complaints on social media get a faster response than calls or emails.

Consumers With Canceled Insurance Plans Shifted to New Ones Without Their Permission

A California man says his insurer rolled him into a new plan and deducted money from his bank account without his approval. Insurers have promised refunds, but he hasn’t received one yet.

Some Predictions on How Medicare Will Release Physician Payment Data

Medicare will soon begin to release data about how much it pays doctors. The details are still unknown, but three recent projects offer some clues.

Journalists Turn to Themselves for Obamacare Stories

After months of hype and hysteria, insurance policies purchased under the Affordable Care Act went into effect on New Year’s Day, and journalists have largely pivoted from writing about the problems of HealthCare.gov to how the law is actually working for consumers.

Obamacare: A Midterm Report Card

The Obama administration has released enrollment statistics for the first three months. There’s much we now know, but even more that we don’t.

No Easy Definition for 'Abusive' Prescribing

As Medicare considers banning doctors who pose a “threat to the health or safety” of patients, it plans to consider an array of factors.

Big Data + Big Pharma = Big Money

New disclosures from data broker IMS Health reveal how much pharmaceutical firms will pay to know what your doctor is prescribing.

In A Major Shift, Medicare Wants Power to Ban Harmful Prescribers

Action follows ProPublica’s investigative series detailing inappropriate and wasteful prescribing, fraud in the nation’s biggest prescription drug program.

Caught Up in a Medicare Drug Fraud

The long list of medications on Joyce Heap’s insurance forms didn’t look right. It turns out they weren’t — and Medicare didn’t seem to care.

Medicare Moves to Tighten Oversight of Prescribers

Action comes after ProPublica uses the government’s own data to find patterns of dangerous prescribing, waste and potential fraud in Medicare Part D.

Senators Press Medicare for Answers on Drug Program

They ask federal officials to take a hard look at Medicare’s popular prescription drug program after ProPublica reports about fraud and waste that have cost taxpayers billions.

Stuck in Limbo With Breast Cancer as the Obamacare Deadline Looms

In New Jersey, people who believe they’ve qualified for Medicaid coverage under the health reform law might not actually be enrolled.

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