Career Development: Fellowships & Internships
AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance
The AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance is a yearlong program allowing journalists to pursue a significant reporting project related to the U.S. health care system. It can be local or national in scope, or a little of both — say an aspect of the Affordable Care Act playing out in your community or subject specialty, or the impact of particular evidence-based treatments on health outcomes, or an analysis of a health care organization’s performance, using public data sets. Fellows pursue the projects with the support of their newsrooms or freelance outlets, which commit to publish or air the work.
Guidance is provided by AHCJ fellowship leaders through customized seminars on health care systems, conference calls and email consultations. The fellowship covers the cost of attending the seminars and AHCJ conferences, and a project allowance is available to defray the cost of field reporting, health data analysis and other project-related research. In addition, each fellow will receive a $2,500 fellowship award upon the successful completion of the project.The fellowship program is supported by The Commonwealth Fund.
Fellows have been selected for the 2013 program. The next application period will be Fall 2013.
“The experience has pushed me way out of my comfort level in a great way. I never had the opportunity to travel so much and talk to so many different people when putting together a project.”
— John George, Philadelphia Business Journal
See details about applying for the fellowship, plus application form...
2013 fellows:
Alan Bavley, a medical reporter with The Kansas City Star, will focus on the trend of large hospitals and health care groups absorbing independent medical practices and likely implications.
Project pending.Jeanne Erdmann, an independent journalist near St. Louis, plans to investigate the health outcomes of people who are either too rural or too poor to access the spectrum of care offered through genetic counseling.
Project pending.Noam Levey, a national health care reporter with the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau, will focus on how local-level policy choices impact community health system outcomes.
Project pending.Rhiannon Meyers, a reporter with the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, plans to examine the scourge of diabetes in her region, cultural and policy influences, consequences and what will be required to change the course of the disease.
Project to date:
Lindy Washburn, a senior writer with The Record/North Jersey Media Group, will study what hospital ownership changes mean in terms of access, performance, costs and accountability, as well as how state policy changes will play into the mix.
Project to date:
2012 fellows:
John George, a health care reporter for the Philadelphia Business Journal. George is preparing a package focusing on the state of obstetrics services in the Philadelphia area.
Completed project:
Margot Sanger-Katz, a health care correspondent for the National Journal in Washington, D.C. Sanger-Katz is producing a yearlong series of stories examining the growing pattern of hospital consolidation and its influence on health care costs and the future of health reform.
Completed project:
The New Goliaths: The 2010 health law was designed to lower costs. Instead, by encouraging hospitals to merge, it could boost the price of care.
Nothing to Smile About: The number of teeth in this country grows, even as the number of dentists shrinks. Guess who gets squeezed out.
In Praise of Price-Fixing: Americans face a constant (and often Sisyphean) struggle against health care inflation. Maryland found an answer.
The False Promise: Hospitals like Pittsburgh’s UPMC created enough jobs to end the recession. If they keep it up, they’ll wreck the economy.
Tammy Worth, a Kansas City-area freelance writer. Worth is preparing a package focusing on health care delivery to uninsured undocumented immigrants.
Project pending.
2011 fellows and projects:
Yanick Rice Lamb, an editor and writer at Heart & Soul Magazine, examined delays that can leave poor and uninsured patients in hospitals for weeks or even months before they can be discharged to nursing homes or rehabilitation centers.
Completed project:
Marshall Allen, then a staff writer for the Las Vegas Sun (now at ProPublica) explored whether transparency about hospital quality improves the quality of care for patients.
Completed project:
How to put patients first: Rising above a fear of malpractice suits, pioneers in health care safety enact seven pillars that work
First Do No Harm: Last year there wasn't a single fatal airline accident in the developed world. So why is the U.S. health care system still accidentally killing hundreds of thousands? The answer is a lack of transparency.
The Sun Shines a Light on Health Care: CJR.org reports on the "Do No Harm" series.
Rosemary Hoban, a reporter with North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC, compared North Carolina's system for treating the mentally ill with those in place in other states and how cuts have affected the systems of care.
Completed project:
