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.
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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.
Small-Scale Violations of Medical Privacy Often Cause the Most Harm
Breaches that expose the health details of just a patient or two are proliferating nationwide. Regulators focus on larger privacy violations and rarely take action on small ones, despite the harm.
Brand-Name Drugs Increase Cost But Not Patient Satisfaction
As presidential candidates focus more on drug prices, new data from the website Iodine shows that generics scored highest among users in three popular drug categories. ProPublica has teamed up with Iodine to add user reviews to our Prescriber Checkup tool.
Privacy Not Included: Federal Law Lags Behind New Tech
The federal privacy law known as HIPAA doesn’t cover home paternity tests, fitness trackers or health apps. When a Florida woman complained after seeing the paternity test results of thousands of people online, federal regulators told her they didn’t have jurisdiction.
When Buying Pharmacies, Valeant Affiliates Haven’t Disclosed California License Denial
Officials at Philidor Rx Services, which was terminated today by two major pharmacy benefits managers, didn’t tell regulators in Texas or California about the license denial when seeking to buy stakes in other pharmacies.
Federal Investigators Looking at Valeant’s Contact Lens Dealings
The Federal Trade Commission is examining whether Valeant’s recent acquisition of a company that makes a key component of rigid contact lenses violates anti-trust laws.
Further Allegations of Misconduct Plague Valeant’s Pharmacies in California
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, a pharmacy owner claims a company associated with Valeant is trying to circumvent California law to distribute drugs in the state.
After Sexual Assault, Woman Says University Lawyers Accessed Her Counseling Records
Laura Hanson says University of Oregon attorneys obtained her counseling records without her permission. The university says it did nothing wrong, but has since changed its policy.
When Students Become Patients, Privacy Suffers
University students have less privacy for their campus health records than they would have if they sought care off campus. Schools say they are trying to seek the right balance between privacy and safety.
Documents Raise New Questions About Valeant’s Pharmacy Relationships in California
A key Valeant pharmacy was denied a license in California for making false statements. Months later, people affiliated with it gained an ownership stake in a licensed pharmacy.