Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

House members delete tweets echoing Supreme mistweet

The general mayhem following mistaken all-too-instant analyses of Thursday's nearly 200-page Supreme Court package of opinions on the health care law included several members of Congress eating their words – or tweets, rather – according to Sunlight Foundation’s Politwoops.

What's in a name? A look at how 'health reform' became 'Obamacare'

Guess who's giving to lawmaker trying to repeal tax on medical devices?

The Minnesota congressman leading the charge to repeal a medical device excise tax that is meant to generate a big chunk of funding for the health care reform law has taken the most campaign money--more than $64,000--from medical device manufacturers this election cycle. 

Congressional letter writing campaign helps torpedo voluntary food marketing guidelines for kids

Days after receiving several campaign checks from the food lobby last May, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is up for reelection this year, sent a letter raising concerns about the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to develop voluntary guidelines aimed at toning down the marketing of junk food to kids.

Health care lobbying groups head to the Supreme Court

If war is politics by other means, so is litigation. While there will be plenty of rhetoric today about President Obama's health care law on the second anniversary of its signing -- including a new op-ed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who was for the health care reform in Massachusetts before he was against it nationally --  the big battle begins Monday, when the Supreme Court opens an unusual three days of argument over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Super Committee, Boehner speech protests linked to major labor group

Our DC, a SEIU-linked protest group that stopped the first Super Committee meeting, has been regularly delivering a pro-jobs message to congressional Republicans: with some 100 protesters outside House Speaker John Boehner's speech at the Economic Club of Washington yesterday, according to organizers, who said the protest was in support of the American Jobs Act.

Shrinking of private practice may drive up health care costs: study

Over the last three years, more and more doctors have left private practice to work for hospitals. A new study has found that this trend might be contributing to the rising cost of health care, at least in the short term.

Medicare and the Super Committee: Can doctors afford to lose two percent of their payments?

Medicare and other health care services could see their funds drained in any number of ways as, over the next few months, the congressional Joint Committee on Debt Reduction--better known as the "super committee"--looks for ways to reduce the national debt.

New Sunlight Health App points to problems at an Illinois nursing home

On October 19, 2010, a Rockford, Illinois man was admitted to a local hospital. Emergency room staff found seven large bed sores on his body; some spanned several inches and had advanced to stage IV, the most severe. One wound, according to emergency room notes, was infected and covered his entire tailbone.

New GOP wave could slow the pace of healthcare reform

House Republicans will begin planning their agendas this week. Many of these candidates made their opposition to the President's health care law a central issue in their campaigns. But to what extent will Tuesday's elections actually affect the course of reform?

Can we rate heart surgeries like blenders?

The Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, released a set of ratings yesterday for something rather more important than appliances: heart bypass surgery. Using data submitted to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the Consumers Union has graded various heart surgery groups using a three-star scale, similar to the way it rates radios, cameras and washing machines. It's a set of valuable public data that could serve as a model for expanding the Department of Health and Human Services' open government sites like Data.medicare.gov and the Community Health Data Initiative.

OGD: A state-by-state look at Medicare payments

Click on the picture for a larger version.

OGD: Future Medicare data looks promising

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services appear to be on to something with their promised new datasets. It's a leap for an agency whose previous offerings were a confusing mishmash of poorly-labeled files. If they continue to add granularity as they roll out more features, journalists could have a useful and innovative set of tools on their hands.

After health care vote, <del>Stupak 11 request billions in earmarks</del> members turn to earmark requests

[Note: this post has been corrected and revised]