Alissa Zhu

Baltimore

Reporter @BaltimoreBanner. tips: alissa.zhu(at)https://t.co/K88xbjNdQ9. past: @nytimes local investigations fellowship, @clarionledger, @springfieldnl

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Articles

Nearly 3,000 jobs cut in Maryland after federal health agencies scale back

3 weeks ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Meredith Cohn |Alissa Zhu

On Tuesday morning, Shawn Linman learned he was being terminated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of mass layoffs that are disproportionately impacting people who live and work in Maryland. The scene for Linman was both chaotic and tragic. Some coworkers’ badges stopped working and had to be escorted by security to clear their desks. Other laid-off employees included veterans and a new mother on her first day of maternity leave.
They died in PHA Healthcare drug treatment. Their families still want answers.

3 weeks ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Alissa Zhu

Maryland health officials suspended the license for troubled addiction treatment provider PHA Healthcare months ago. Several families of those who died in the program say they want more. Their mourning is haunted by lingering questions, including: What will happen to the people who ran the program?
New round of federal health cuts threaten kids’ vaccines and research

3 weeks ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Meredith Cohn |Alissa Zhu

Maryland’s health department and universities are slated to lose more than $300 million in federal funding, a sum that will likely continue rising as the Trump administration looks for more existing grantsto cut. The money had been pledged to the state for things like vaccinating children against infectious diseases, increasing HIV preventive measures and supporting people with addiction and mental health disorders.
New efforts are trying to stem shocking rates of overdose deaths among seniors

1 month ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Alissa Zhu

For years, Shanda Brown saw dozens of seniors die from drug use at the affordable housing complex wheresheworked in Baltimore’s Upton neighborhood. “We definitely felt like we were out there on our own,” Brown said. But now there’s new focus on theoverdose crisis devastating the city’solder adults.
State crackdown on Medicaid fraud kicks off with first guilty plea

1 month ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Meredith Cohn |Alissa Zhu

Using stolen identities, fake patient records and forged signatures, a Maryland woman already on probation scammed the state out of nearly $3.7 million for mental health services she never actually provided. Tasha Saunders, 44, of Parkville, pleaded guilty Feb. 25 to defrauding Medicaid, the federal-state health program that covers about 1 in 4 low-income Marylanders. She’s due to be sentenced in July. Her lawyer declined to comment on the case.
PHA healthcare: Investigation prompts new addiction treatment oversight bill

1 month ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Alissa Zhu

A Baltimore Democrat is pushing a new bill to improve state oversight of drug addiction treatment centers following a series of stories by The Banner exposing unscrupulous practices by program operators. The investigation, published in collaboration with The New York Times, revealed in December that for years, Maryland health officials barelyvetted a flood of new addiction treatment programs despite paying hundreds of millions of dollars annually to serve the state’s poorest residents.
Baltimore quietly makes progress to address opioid crisis despite pending lawsuit

1 month ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Alissa Zhu |Emily Opilo

After a hearing on drug overdoses was again canceled amid a public row between a Baltimore councilman and the mayor, council members assembled last week in City Hall with little fanfare to vote on an opioids-related bill. The Baltimore City Council’s Budget and Appropriations Committee approved more than $14 million to community organizations and city agencies to helptackle Baltimore’s overdose crisis, which in recent years had become theworst ever in a major American city.
Johns Hopkins counts on federal funding like few others. A bust could be coming.

1 month ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Alissa Zhu |Meredith Cohn |Ellie Wolfe

The Johns Hopkins University once had a friend in the federal government like few others. The National Institutes of Health poured billions of dollars into Baltimore’s premier university in exchange for cutting-edge studies in biomedical research designed to save and improve lives.
Ready but unable to open: Treatment providers face new problems in Maryland

1 month ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Alissa Zhu |Meredith Cohn |Jasmine Vaughn-Hall

Real estate broker Mike Griesser decided to open a drug treatment center near where he grew up in Carroll County five years ago, but he has yet to welcome a client. In 2020, he bought a two-story apartment building and began renovating it into a place where men struggling with drug and alcohol use can live together, receive counseling and learn life skills.
PHA Healthcare client: ‘I have nowhere to go’ as company fails to pay rent

2 months ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Alissa Zhu

A Maryland addiction treatment program that was ordered to cease and desist counseling services has stopped paying rent on at least three properties, according to court documents and interviews, throwing some of its clients who reside in its housing into panic. PHA Healthcare operated its drug treatment program out of at least 15 properties in West Baltimore and across the state in recent years.