Republic wins business journalism awards

Andrew Ford’s narrative investigation about Modern Vascular, a rapidly growing medical practice that focused on removing blockages in the lower leg, won a first-place prize for health and science reporting from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing on Thursday.

A collection of stories about Arizona’s water woes by current and former Arizona Republic reporters Rob O’Dell, Ian James, Ryan Randazzo, and Mark Henle won an honorable mention in the energy and natural resources category.

“The Best in Business Awards competition is going from strength to strength, attracting a bigger and more diverse set of entries again this year,” said Joanna Ossinger, co-chair of the Best in Business Awards and markets editor at Bloomberg News. “It’s wonderful to see so much informative and impactful work from the business journalism community. SABEW is pleased to honor some of the very best of those efforts.”

Ford’s stories chronicled the history of Modern Vascular’s top-billing doctor, Scott Brannan, from a trailer home to medical school, from repeated arrests to national prominence.

Some Modern Vascular patients lost their limbs or their lives after allegedly unnecessary procedures, and some sued the company. The Department of Justice also filed a legal complaint claiming Modern Vascular defrauded Medicare out of $50 million and allegedly engaged in an illegal kickback scheme. The company denied the DOJ’s claims in court.

The Department of Justice said in legal documents that Modern Vascular placed “enormous pressure” on staff to perform expensive invasive procedures. “As Modern Vascular Corporate’s Chief Medical Officer Steve Berkowitz told a reporter for The Arizona Republic, ‘If you run a pizza joint and you’re not selling enough pizzas, you’re not going to stay in business.’”

Officials at Modern Vascular denied wrongdoing. Since The Republic’s stories were published and the Department of Justice filed its complaint, Modern Vascular has shuttered about half its clinics. Where it once advertised 17 clinics on its website, there are now only eight.

Energy and Natural Resources Reporting

Meanwhile, two stories by a team of former and current Arizona Republic reporters, which included O’Dell, James, Randazzo and Henle, were recognized in a different category.

The first article, published in June, featured Fondomonte, the Saudi Arabian company that’s been sucking groundwater from under the desert to grow alfalfa and then shipping it halfway around the world to feed its dairy cows in the Middle

East. The investigation revealed that the company has been paying the state just $25 per acre annually to lease public land, far less than the land is worth.

“Saudi Arabia has stated their intention to rob Arizonans at the gas pump, but they are also already stealing our water,” said U.S. Rep Ruben Gallego in October, expressing the outrage of many Arizonans. “We need to act to stop our state from being sucked dry by a nonsensical agreement.”

By contrast, the second article, published in December, focused on residents of rural towns — many living below the poverty line — who are facing a myriad of problems because their water infrastructure is in desperate need of repair.

These residents’ homes are either hooked to pipes that are 40 to 50 years old and need to be replaced, or their water contains dangerous levels of arsenic and other chemicals, or the water table in their area has dropped so low that they need to dig new wells. Whatever the case, they face millions of dollars in upgrades, which will translate into steep monthly increases in their water bills — increases that many won’t be able to afford.

“There’s only so much you can burden people with,” said Tom Hashem, a resident of Pine, Arizona. “You can’t take 40 to 50 years of neglect and expect to repair it all at once.” After the story about Fondomonte went live, it immediately re-energized efforts on the part of lawmakers to protect Arizona’s groundwater. By revealing the cheap land deal and the unchecked pumping of water, the reporting also brought scrutiny of Arizona’s system of leasing farmland to the private company at very low prices, depriving schools of much-needed revenues.

So far, there have not been many commitments to fix rural utilities. But the Corporation Commission, which regulates these entities, is expected to be more proactive in the year ahead.

The Best in Business Awards said it attracted 1,182 entries from 193 news organizations, ranging from international, national and regional news outlets to specialized business publications.

The Arizona Republic was recognized in the midsized category — the same category as the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald and Forbes Magazine.