Narrative Matters: On Our Reading List

Editor’s Note: “Narrative Matters: On Our Reading List” is a monthly roundup where we share some of the most compelling health care narratives driving the news and conversation in recent weeks. Defrauding Recovering Addicts In a harrowing tale of recovering addicts struggling to find housing in New York City, The New York Times’ Kim Barker delivers the complicated story of a “longtime hustler” and the vulnerable people who are taken advantage of by him. In “A Choice for Recovering Addicts: Relapse or Homelessness,” Barker details Yury Baumblit’s systematic defrauding of addicts, encouraging them to relapse intro drug use and attend treatment so that he could collect kickbacks on the Medicaid fees paid to outpatient treatment programs, in exchange for providing the addicts with filthy bunk beds in an overcrowded apartment. Barker includes the stories of the recovering addicts, most of whom, fearing the homeless shelter and having no other alternatives, submit to Baumblit’s demands. Baumblit pled guilty to two felonies for insurance fraud and has faced other charges over the years for his actions. Barker concludes that more must be done to regulate housing, including the “three-quarter” houses between a halfway house and an independent home, that “dooms tenants to a cycle of treatment and relapse.” Personal Insights On Autism In “16 Truths About Autism,” BuzzFeed contributor Tiffany Reese puts together a signature BuzzFeed list describing the con...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Narrative Matters Population Health Public Health Quality addiction autism Cancer medical ethics patients Physicians Source Type: blogs