Training: Webcasts

For freelancers and potential freelancers, pitching is job No. 1. AHCJ knows that; that’s why every year, our annual Health Journalism conference offers Freelance PitchFest, which puts you face-to-face with some of the biggest health editors in the country. Members attending Pitchfest know they have to be ready to make a good impression in minutes — and members who won’t be attending the conference, but are busy freelancers, want to know more about pitching too.

AHCJ has your back with a webcast on pitching health stories that sell, featuring some top editors.

One key issue addressed at the recent World Economic Forum was the rapidly increasing global aging population; and how to prepare for its profound impact on global health, as well as the direct economic, social and political implications.

Global experts from the WEF Global Agenda Council on Ageing led this discussion in Davos and presented a new report outlining key challenges/opportunities associated with global aging, including how to improve healthy aging through the innovation of global health systems and investment in long-term health options; as well as specific initiatives to seize the social and economic opportunity created by the aging population.  

AHCJ members are invited to a webinar with leaders from the WEF Council on Ageing to discuss these topics and share specific outcomes from their discussion in Davos

Today, Americans are living 30 years longer than their ancestors did just four generations ago. Yet policymakers have been slow to recognize the implications of this unprecedented increase in longevity.

As a result, social institutions of all kinds – workplaces, communities, families, educational organizations, health care providers – haven’t yet adapted to the challenges and opportunities posed by America’s aging population. Nor is there any consensus over what successful adaptation might look like.

In this webcast, three experts will discuss noteworthy trends and research in aging, including a recent study on troubling disparities in life expectancy that was featured on the front page of The New York Times. Judith Graham, AHCJ’s topic leader on aging, will moderate.

This AHCJ webcast will examine one big piece of the puzzle: what this election’s outcome means for seniors on Medicare, older adults who receive long-term care services from Medicaid and other programs that serve our elderly population.

Just days after the November elections, states will have to make final (or reasonably final) decisions about whether they are going to run their own health insurance exchange and what that will look like – or whether the federal government will take responsibility for all or part of the exchange.

We’ll talk to three experts who are doing hands-on work with both “red” and “blue” states.

A recording of this webinar is available.

AHCJ members took advantage of an exclusive on-the-record conversation with Farzad Mostashari, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology, and other officials with the HHS Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

View and learn how to use an updated “Health IT Dashboard” to find local-level information for your stories.

AHCJ will hold a members-only call with CMS officials to discuss major upgrades to Nursing Home Compare and Hospital Compare websites.

Join AHCJ on Thursday, July 19, at 11:30 a.m. ET, for an exclusive members-only conversation with officials from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about the rollout of major new additions to the Nursing Home Compare and Hospital Compare websites. You won't want to miss this.

Many of you are familiar with the Compare websites as sources for information about nursing home citations, hospital patient satisfaction scores, as well as mortality and readmission information. CMS has redesigned the sites and will be launching them on Thursday.

Click here to log in for more information and the chance to test your browser in advance.

To assist reporters who will need to localize the decision, AHCJ will host a webcast with experts to offer suggestions on stories you can pursue right away and in the weeks ahead. The event will take place at noon ET on June 29, the day after the court releases its ruling.

Does your local hospital place more cardiac stents than others? Do more of its patients leave the emergency room without being seen? Does it have a high level of C-section births? These questions and others are relatively easy to answer thanks to a data gold mine kept by the obscure California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. It doesn't matter if your hospital is public, nonprofit or for-profit, data on its patients and services are available online.

Charles Ornstein, senior reporter at ProPublica and president of AHCJ's board of directors, will guide you through using the data to answer those questions and more.

What do current Medicare beneficiaries think of the program? What do they like and don't like? How would they change their coverage if they could? Experts will explore the high out-of-pocket costs some beneficiaries still must still pay and whether they have too many choices for supplemental and drug coverage. What are the prospects for preventive care services that many beneficiaries say they want? Experts will also look at the long-term prospects for Medicare.

Our panel of experts and journalists will discuss these issues and more with an eye toward what journalists need to know to best inform their readers and viewers.

Send questions in advance to talkinghealth@healthjournalism.org.

A webinar for journalists

There's little question that health reform has dominated the news this summer, but is the coverage tackling the right issues? Join us for a "Talking Health" webinar, presented by AHCJ, The Commonwealth Fund, and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, to find out what top journalists think of the coverage of this complicated policy debate.

Health reform is picking up steam in Congress. A major flash point in the coming debate is whether employers and individuals should be able to obtain health insurance through a public plan that is similar to Medicare, as well as private insurance from commercial carriers.

Our next Talking Health program will feature two experts: Cathy Schoen, senior vice president for research and evaluation at The Commonwealth Fund, and Bruce M. Bullen, chief operating officer of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. They will be on hand to offer their judgments on what we can expect. Our two journalist experts, Noam Levey, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times; and Ceci Connolly, a staff writer at The Washington Post; will provide their insights and suggestions for covering what will be a major story in the coming months.

The speakers will answer questions submitted before and during the webcast.

Obama presidency: Does his health plan stand a chance?

What lies ahead for health reform? The candidates made lots of promises during the campaign and now the time has come to deliver on them. Will the new president really be able to bring insurance coverage to more Americans given the country's other financial problems and the growing deficit? Will we again fall back on an incremental approach?

Our next Talking Health program will feature two experts who have been following the politics of health reform for a long time and two journalists who will give suggestions for covering the story for the next year nationally and locally. They will be taking questions from the audience, so submit questions today!

AHCJ, The Commonwealth Fund, and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism will present Talking Health, a webcast for members that will explore the growing problem of the underinsured – those who have insurance but are still at risk for substantial out-of-pocket expenses.

Get MP3 and Flash presentations from the 2007 Urban Health Journalism Workshop. Topics include the health issues of children, seniors and immigrants in urban settings, as well as obesity, mental health, disaster preparedness and the mapping of local health data.

Multimedia presentations are now available from this workshop, the third of its kind presented in California by AHCJ over the past year, was sponsored by The California Endowment. Logistical support also came from The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Audio is now available from the AHCJ San Francisco Bay Area Chapter meeting on Sept. 5 at the Kaiser Family Foundation about "Universal health coverage in California and the U.S.: Will it happen, when, and what will it look like?"

AHCJ and the Kaiser Family Foundation hosted this interactive roundtable webcast on March 6, 2007. Trudy Lieberman, president of AHCJ's board of directors, moderates a panel of experts discussing what journalists need to know about covering SCHIP.

With the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) up for reauthorization, this roundtable - a partnership between the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Kaiser Family Foundation - focuses on what journalists need to know about covering SCHIP in their states. Health reform proposals announced by would-be presidential candidates call for expanding coverage through SCHIP.

Hospital emergency rooms are under siege. Some inner city hospitals are losing on-call specialists to treat severely injured patients or must pay high prices to keep them. In some parts of the country, ambulance diversions are continuing. So are wallet biopsies which telegraph to hospitals who can pay and who cannot. Changes to Medicaid mandated by the Deficit Reduction Act could affect the care those on Medicaid will receive. Technology and emergency room care will become more expensive, raising the question: “Who will fund this place of last resort as the move to market-driven health care rushes ahead? “

A roundtable focusing on the new Medicare prescription drug benefit known as Part D, designed to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for their medications.

This roundtable focuses on health savings accounts and related approaches advocated by the Bush Administration and others to address rising health care costs and lack of coverage for the uninsured. Webcast and transcript available.