Rochelle Sharpe
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Can the government change the way that doctors care for their patients?
This is one of the key questions reporters will try to answer as they cover the Obama administration’s efforts to promote comparative effectiveness research. Rochelle Sharpe, a Pulitzer Prize-winning freelance writer, has written about research that is designed to determine the most effective ways to treat disease and fill gaping holes in our medical knowledge.
While reporting on unnecessary cancer screenings, Sharpe discovered that about 40 percent of Medicare spending on common preventive screenings is regarded as medically unnecessary by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. That amounts to about $2 billion spent on unnecessary tests over a six-year period. Here, she shares sources and questions that reporters should be asking about the topic.
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AHCJ’s Rural Health Journalism Workshop 2012 in Omaha, Neb., will offer journalists resources and story ideas about special health concerns of rural populations and how reporters can better cover these stories. It’s designed for any journalist who covers news – not just reporters on the health beat – to leave with solid knowledge, better resources and ideas you can use in your own community.
With panel discussions led by award-winning journalists with world-class health experts, you’ll leave this workshop with lots of story ideas and new resources to explore and use. Just join AHCJ – or make sure your membership is up to date – to attend. For additional information and reserve a spot, follow this link and sign up!
The workshop includes breakfast and lunch. Thanks to our generous sponsors, AHCJ has a limited amount of travel assistance available.
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 Nonprofit tax forms, known as 990s, have been an invaluable tool for reporters writing about hospitals, their finances, their compensation, their charity care and their assets. Until now, reporters have had to look up or request these forms individually for each hospital or chain they are reviewing, either from the organization itself or on a website like GuideStar.
AHCJ has partnered with GuideStar to offer members a spreadsheet that includes key financial information from every U.S. nonprofit that operates a hospital.
This is an extraordinary reporting tool that allows reporters to put any organization in context for a state or the nation as a whole. AHCJ vice president Karl Stark and president Charles Ornstein have picked the fields included in the spreadsheets and they created a guide for using the data.
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 Most health journalists know that the U.S. population is rapidly aging thanks to 78 million Baby Boomers who started turning 65 years old in 2011. What’s not as well appreciated is the increasing diversity of our aging population. By mid-century, the proportion of elders from ethnic and racial communities will double.
For health care journalists, the graying of the American rainbow presents a kaleidoscope of story possibilities. Paul Kleyman has contributed this tip sheet to help health reporters cover our increasingly diverse older population. It includes four key concepts and helpful links intended to point the way toward more ethnically representative – and interesting – stories.
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Health journalists in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are invited to apply for the 2012-13 AHCJ Regional Health Journalism Fellowship Program.
The program, designed by journalists for journalists, provides 10 to 12 already-established journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on localizing critical health issues.
Fellows attend a series of training sessions and briefings and can take advantage of a mentor from AHCJ's membership, a fellows-only listserv and Web page and continuing support after the fellowship. Application deadline: June 1.
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 AHCJ has teamed up with the National Library of Medicine to present the AHCJ-NLM Fellowships. AHCJ will select four journalists to spend a week on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The selected journalists will:
- Learn how to explore the latest NIH research
- Learn to understand and interpret biomedical statistics
- Take advantage of NLM's data, programs and resources for stronger stories
- Get hands-on training in PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov, ToxNet and Household Products Database
Enhance your medical and scientific reporting through this specialized fellowship. Fellowship includes travel expenses, lodging and stipend. The dates of the fellowship are Sept. 30-Oct. 4. Application deadline: Aug. 6.
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One of the largest crowds in AHCJ history gathered for a successful conference in Atlanta.
The event featured a conversation with former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter, in which they talked about their efforts to improve health globally, bring parity to mental health care and thoughts on the health reform effort.
Keynote speaker Otis Brawley, M.D., the American Cancer Society's chief medical and scientific officer, spoke eloquently about how the health system doesn't provide incentives for the best care, pointing out that the "system isn't failing; failure is the system."
Dozens of panels and workshops brought new sources and story ideas to many attendees, as well as inspiration to continue pushing to do the best health journalism.
We will be posting more stories, tip sheets, speaker presentations, photos and videos from the conference in the coming days. In the meantime, watch the conversation with the Carters and Brawley's address. And see photos from the conversation with the Carters.
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A touching narrative about a terminally ill man’s choices at the end of life – along with stories showcasing how ethnic communities are coping with diabetes and an investigation into one doctor’s trail of malpractice allegations – were among the top winners of this year’s Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.
First-place awards also went to stories detailing risks at hospitals – including a higher-than-average rate of violence against workers – and a series uncovering problems with state and federal oversight of private ambulance services in Houston.
The 2011 awards, announced April 4 by the Association of Health Care Journalists, recognize the best health reporting in 10 categories.
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Oral arguments before the Supreme Court on four separate legal questions arising from the Affordable Care Act are complete. A decision is expected in late June.
Joanne Kenen, AHCJ’s health reform topic leader, kept a close eye on the hearings. Get her reaction to the proceedings, as well as her suggestions of what reporters should be covering while we wait to hear the outcome from the Court.
Before the hearings, we talked to T.R. Goldman, a longtime legal journalist who has written about the case and asked him to address five key questions for journalists, including how those far from Washington, D.C., can cover the story. In addition, Kenen selected some links to further reading, webcasts and health and legal blogs that may be useful.
What are the trends? What are the implications for states if the Supreme Court strikes down parts the reform law, or the entire law?
This webinar has been archived to help you report on the answers to those and other questions. We have links to resources and a list of experts with contact information. Sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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Tony Leys
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One little-known element of the health care reform law sets new rules for nonprofits. They are required to assess community needs, and inform patients of charity policies. Some legislators want tougher rules and oversight to make sure they are providing enough service to the community to justify the tax break.
Reporter Tony Leys, of the Des Moines Register, describes how he examined how much charity care is provided by hospitals in Iowa in return for the substantial tax breaks they get for operating as nonprofit organizations. Leys, a 2011-12 Regional Health Journalism Fellow, was able to compare local hospitals, using new IRS reporting requirements for nonprofit hospitals, and estimated how local property tax revenue was affected by the tax-exempt hospital properties in those areas.
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 Some publishers and media outlets don't provide liability coverage for freelance writers' articles, and freelancers may blog or publish their own material, leaving many troubled by their exposure to possible legal problems – and the resulting financial impact.
Separate media liability coverage is available for writers, with policies covering libel, trademark/copyright infringement, defamation, invasion of privacy, and errors and omissions. But most writers don't buy it because coverage can be expensive, ranging from $500 a year to more than $1,500.
Independent journalist Andy Miller has some tips to consider if you are looking into your insurance options.
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Evaluate, report on quality of hospitals in your area
AHCJ offers hospital mortality and readmission data, which will allow you to tell your audience whether a hospital's rates are in line with national averages, significantly better or significantly worse. A special AHCJ webinar provided an introduction to this data, including ideas on how to use the data in your own area.
The federal survey that reflects patients' perspectives of hospital care has been updated on the AHCJ website. The spreadsheets that AHCJ offers allow you to analyze the top-rated hospitals — or lowest-rated hospitals — in your area.
Need help analyzing data? AHCJ has tip sheets to help, including "Finding patterns and trends in health data: Pivot tables in spreadsheets" and "Intro to investigating health data using spreadsheets." Links to the data and the relevant tip sheets are all on the Data page.
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 • Covering Medical Research
• Covering the Health of Local Nursing Homes
• Navigating the CDC: A Journalist’s Guide to the CDC Web Site
• Covering Obesity: A Guide for Reporters
• Covering Hospitals: Using Tools on the Web
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Covering Health
Esophageal cancer screening could lead to runaway health costs
Reuters' Frederik Joelving reports that a new, easier method of taking biopsies to detect esophogeal cancer, called TSA, has opened a up a whole new ...
Experts share challenges of setting up state insurance exchanges
Setting up a state insurance exchange is a complicated endeavor – made more so by the bitter politics of health reform and the uncertainty over the ...
Investigative reports lead to Senate investigation into painkiller promotion
Following up on reporting efforts from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today and ProPublica, a Senate committee has launched investigation ...
Attention to complex emotions around caregiving can add depth to stories
If we're lucky as we cross the threshold into old age, people who we love – our spouses, our children, our nieces and nephews, friends and ...
Investigation finds hospital’s leader spent public money on personal interests
Reese Dunklin and Sue Goetinck Ambrose of The Dallas Morning News document how Kern Wildenthal, the former UT Southwestern Medical Center president ...
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Stay in touch with AHCJ through social networking sites and tools
Find freelance health journalists in our directory
‘Downsized’ members can take advantage of transition-assistance program
AHCJ makes Nursing Home Compare data easier to analyze
Health Reform