Reuters, ?Milwaukee Journal Sentinel? Score at Barlett & Steele Awards

Reuters has received the gold award and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the silver award in the fourth annual Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism. The awards are funded by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.

Reuters’ gold-winning “Diagnosed with Breast Cancer, Dropped by Insurer” by Murray Waas was the result of a four-month investigation that revealed that a giant health insurer had targeted policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer for aggressive investigations with the intent to cancel their policies. 

“Reuters contrasted the upfront public stance of a health care company and its CEO to the reality behind the scenes, revealing the insidiousness of gatekeeping by software,” the judges said. “This investigation led to government pressure and an industry-wide change in the practice of dropping health care coverage for patients after they became sick.”

The investigation led to government pressure and changes in health-care practices.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s John Fauber wrote “Side Effects: Money, Medicine and Patients,” which took the silver award. Fauber’s stories uncovered conflicts of interest that can compromise a doctor’s judgment. One example was a surgeon receiving millions of dollars in royalties annually from a medical device company while serving as editor of a medical journal that published favorable research on the company’s projects.

By revealing interwoven ties between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry, Fauber’s work prompted an inquiry by a U.S. Senate committee “and led to sweeping changes at a major university school of medicine,” said the judges. Fauber pored over thousands of pages of medical literature, coursework and documents obtained through open-records laws.

Check out his stories here, here, here and here.

Honorable mentions went to McClatchy Newspapers, for “Goldman Sachs and the Housing Crash” by Greg Gordon, Kevin Hall and Chris Adams; the Star Tribune of Minneapolis for “Hounded: Debtors and the New Breed of Collectors” by Chris Serres and Glenn Howatt; The Philadelphia Inquirer, for “Inside the Health-Care Crucible: Reports from a Hospital in a Time of Upheaval” by Michael Vitez; and USA Today, for “The Credit Trap” by Kathy Chu.

“This was the strongest group of award entries the judges have encountered and clear indication that investigative business journalism is alive and well,” said Reynolds Center President Andrew Leckey. “Even though health care has been the subject of prolonged national debate, our award winners were able to tell us something we didn’t know.”

Named for the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning investigative business journalist team of Don Barlett and Jim Steele, the awards honor the best in print and online investigative business journalism and carry a cash award of $5,000 for the gold and $2,000 for the silver prizes.