meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Daily

The Booming Business of Cutting Babies’ Tongues

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A Times investigation has found that dentists and lactation consultants around the country are pushing “tongue-tie releases” on new mothers struggling to breastfeed, generating huge profits while often harming patients. Katie Thomas, an investigative health care reporter at The Times, discusses the forces driving this emerging trend in American health care and the story of one family in the middle of it.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernici, and this is the Daily.

0:05.0

A Times investigation has found that doctors are increasingly performing

0:16.4

unnecessary medical procedures that generate huge profits

0:20.6

while often harming patients.

0:24.0

Today, my colleague Katie Thomas,

0:28.0

on the forces driving this emerging and troubling trend

0:31.0

in American health care.

0:33.1

And the story of one family caught in the middle of it.

0:38.8

It's Monday, February 19th.

0:41.3

So Katie, tell me. 19th.

0:47.0

So Katie, tell me about this investigation. So I am a health care reporter who writes about the kind of intersection of health care and money.

0:56.0

And I was working with two other colleagues, Sarah Cliff and Jessica Silver Greenberg.

1:01.0

And together, the three of us had long been interested in are the

1:06.5

medical procedures and the tests and other things that we get when we go to the

1:10.6

doctor or into a hospital, are they always necessary?

1:14.3

But what we were really interested in exploring was not just are these procedures and are these

1:18.9

tests, etc, are they necessary, but in some situations could they actually be harmful to patients.

1:25.2

And so that's what we decided to try and take a look at.

1:28.8

And so we had gotten started in our reporting when we got a tip.

1:34.5

And it was from a mom in Boise, Idaho.

1:38.7

And her name was Lauren LaVell.

1:41.0

Hi.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New York Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New York Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.