Journalists and advocates for better health care across the country were mourning the loss of longtime AHCJ member Marshall Allen this week.
Allen died on Sunday, May 19, of a heart attack at the age of 52.
He was known for his prize-winning investigative reporting and his advocacy for transparency in health care quality and pricing. With his 2021 book, “Never Pay The First Bill And Other Ways To Fight The Health Care System And Win,” and the Allen Health Academy, he established himself as a patient advocate and champion of a more just health care system. Tributes to Allen early this week provided evidence of how many people he helped through his work — many from people who had never met him but had won fights with hospitals over unjustifiable bills.
His involvement in AHCJ was long and impactful. Former AHCJ Board President Ivan Oransky remembered him from 2009 when he was one of AHCJ’s first Health Care Performance fellows.
“He quickly impressed me with his insight, drive to understand and expose systems gone wrong, and desire to effect change,” Oransky said.
He was reporting for the Las Vegas Sun at that time and went on to write with Alex Richards a series of data-driven stories about hospital quality in Las Vegas. One patient advocacy organization referred to the pair’s groundbreaking reporting as “the Holy Grail” for its exposure of the relationship between hospital care and patient deaths. The series, “Do No Harm,” was a Pulitzer finalist. It garnered numerous awards, including from AHCJ.
Later, Oransky worked with Allen on AHCJ’s Finance Committee, where he was “a voice of clarity with an incredibly strong moral compass.”
“Those qualities made him a terrific and compassionate investigative reporter whose work helped countless people,” Oransky said, adding that he would miss his work, impact, and deep character.
Allen’s faith was foundational to that character. He had a master’s degree in theology and was a minister for five years. He wrote about the relationship between his faith and his journalism in 2018 for the New York Times in an opinion piece titled, “The Biblical Guide to Reporting.”
He went on to report on health care cost and quality for ProPublica where he helped bring to life the Surgeon Scorecard. He also exposed a Top Doctor scam when he was selected for the honor and played along, more or less, to the punchline: For $289 he could receive a plaque, commemorating this accolade. So could anyone, it seemed.
His colleagues at ProPublica remembered Allen with respect and admiration in a tribute published Tuesday. In it, Charles Ornstein, ProPublica managing editor, former AHCJ board president and a longtime colleague of Allen’s, said: “Marshall had this curiosity about the health care system that allowed him to explore stories with a freshness that many veteran health care reporters can’t do.”
After leaving ProPublica, Allen went to work for the Office of Inspector General, Health and Human Services. With the publication of “Never Pay the First Bill,” he devoted himself to educating the public about the U.S. health care system and how to fight back against claim denials, predatory billing practices and other problems.
Len Bruzzese, AHCJ executive director from 2005-2020, remembered Allen with great fondness. “We watched Marshall from his time as a local reporter shaking things up in Las Vegas to becoming a health care system expert with an adoring national audience.”
”He went from being an AHCJ reporting fellow in one of our early training programs to being an instructor and mentor to future fellows,” Bruzzese said. “He was always willing to help others coming up.”
“Everything Marshall did was about service to others. What an example he set, both professionally and personally.”
Allen is survived by his wife, Sonja Allen, and their three sons, Isaac, Ashton and Cody, according to the ProPublica article. A GoFundMe has been created by friends to support the family.
