Peter Whoriskey

How a secretive panel of the American Medical Association distorts doctors’ pay

After the Carlyle Group orchestrated a deal for the nation's largest nursing home chain, investors extracted $1.3 billion but left the firm with untenable financial obligations and rising health-code violations.

Created 10 years ago by a private-equity firm, USAP is now one of the largest in the U.S., with more than 4,000 doctors and spanning nine states. As it gobbled up existing practices, it dominated markets and big price hikes followed.

Consumers are left with few options and crushing prices as insurers offering Affordable Care Act plans pull out of some regions.

Johnson & Johnson, a company more widely known for baby powder and Band-Aids, became a major supplier of narcotic raw materials to the U.S. thanks to poppies engineered in Tasmania.

How industry-backed pharmaceutical research convinced the FDA that opioids posed "minimal risk" of addiction.

Even in the most prestigious of medical journals, industry influence over studies opens door to bias.

Anemia drugs generated billions for biotech firm Amgen. But their success was based on company-conducted trials that missed its dangers and touted benefits that years later would be deemed unproven.