The series exposed a 50-year pattern of misconduct by the U.S. government and the American beryllium industry – wrongdoing that caused a chronic lung disease in dozens of workers producing the strategic metal. The articles sparked major safety reforms, numerous lawsuits, and two congressional investigations.
An account of how two American contraceptive researchers arranged for the chemical sterilization of more than 100,000 women in developing nations. The story led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to halt distribution of quinacrine, the potentially carcinogenic contraceptive.
Reporters William Allen and Kim Bell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch asked Skolnick to assist them in completing a special report on prison healthcare. Skolnick, along with Allen and Bell, wrote or contributed to three articles that were published in the September 27, 1998 edition of the paper: “Physicians with troubled pasts have found work behind bars;” “Two key posts in Alabama were filled by doctors with checkered histories;” and “Prisoner, doctor who treated him, both had drug arrests”.
The New York Times’ examination of Columbia, including a computer analysis of more than 30-million billing records, casts some light on the government’s concerns. One of the findings was that many Columbia hospitals bill Medicare for high-paying respiratory treatments far more often than do competing hospitals serving similar populations. Federal authorities called such findings an indication of possible overbilling of the program.
An investigative journalism series that laid bare the problems with the quality of Florida’s Medicaid HMO treatment system for the poor.
An year long investigation, Smoke Screen, Parts I and II, shed light on the manipulation of nicotine in cigarettes. The thrust was on how the tobacco industry, through the manufacturing process, is able to control the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.