William Heisel

<p>A coroner in Pennsylvania has decided that a man who was shot to death by police officers actually wanted to die. Wait, what?</p>

<p>Hospital execs in Northern California leak private patient records to the media. Why? Because the patient dared talk to a reporter.</p>

<p>To find great investigative Medicare stories in 2012, look no further than the federal <a href="http://oig.hhs.gov/">Office of Inspector General</a>.</p>

<p>Here's the second batch of my favorite health stories of 2011. In all, it’s been another tremendous year for health journalism.</p>

<p>It was difficult to narrow <em>Antidote’s</em> list of favorite health stories from 2011 down to just 10. Here is the first batch.</p>

<p><span style="font-size: small;">Sometimes the key fact for a story can be found in a death certificate.</span></p>

<p>Terri Langford fought one of the largest government agencies on the planet — the Center for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS) — and won big. Here's more on how she faced down dismissive bureaucrats to report on fraud and mismanagement.</p>

<p>Investigative reporter Terri Langford — a self-described Medicare "rookie" — details how she reported her Houston Chronicle series on how private ambulance companies are gaming the Medicare system.&nbsp;</p>

<p>With the help of an online “reputation management” firm, some dentists and doctors are trying to shut down patient voices on Yelp and other review sites. Here’s how one patient-journalist pushed back.</p>

<p>To show the value of making death records public, I'm asking health writers nationwide to join my quest to request death certificates from all 50 states.&nbsp;</p>