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.
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Why Pharma Payments to Doctors Were So Hard to Parse
Flaws in information submitted to Open Payments, a government database of financial relationships in the medical field, complicated our analysis.
Vying for Market Share, Companies Heavily Promote 'Me Too' Drugs
Our comprehensive analysis of drug company spending on doctors in the last five months of 2013 shows the most-promoted products typically were not cures, breakthroughs or top sellers.
Open Payments Explorer: How Much Industry Money Goes to Doctors and Teaching Hospitals
Beginning in 2014, the federal government mandated that pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers publicly report payments made to doctors and teaching hospitals. The first report covered the last five months of 2013. Use this tool to search for a company, drug or device — and compare it to another.
Methodology for Calculating Company Payments to Doctors
Even with new federal data, it's not easy to track drug, device company spending on their products
When a Patient's Death is Broadcast Without Permission
The ABC television show "NY Med" filmed Mark Chanko's final moments without the approval of his family. Even though his face was blurred, his wife recognized him. "I saw my husband die before my eyes."
As Controlled Substance Use Rises in Medicare, Prolific Prescribers Face More Scrutiny
Despite warnings about abuse, Medicare covered more prescriptions for potent controlled substances in 2012 than it did in 2011. The program's top prescribers often have faced disciplinary action or criminal charges related to their medical practices.
Will My Obamacare Health Plan Costs Go Up?
The open enrollment season for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act is open until Feb. 15, 2015. Our interactive tool lets you compare plans before you renew your insurance through the federal exchange.