Reporting on the business of health care: Covering the business of health care is a challenge, whether reporting on insurance companies, service providers, consumers, pharmaceutical companies or other aspects. AHCJ member Tammy Worth has written a guide and a glossary of terms to help reporters tackle this complex topic.
Other AHCJ resources
Digging Into Hospital Finances: Recent trends and five key documents
Changes to 990 forms make hospital finance investigations necessary
Covering the Health of Local Nursing Homes
Summarizing spreadsheets to create categories and counts
Deciphering cost reports helps paint picture of hospital's financial health
Providers
Companies MuniOS.com and DAC provide details from bond prospectuses issues by nonprofits or government agencies when selling bonds for new facilities.
Guidestar allows you to download IRS Form 990s, a good starting document to investigate a nonprofit health entity.
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging is a national nonprofit that represents nursing homes, assisted living and other housing for the elderly. Media contact: Lauren Shaham, lshaham@aahsa.org.
American Dental Association: phone 312-440-2500
American Hospital Association: phone 202-638-1100
American Hospital Directory – offers characteristics, utilization and financial information for hospitals nationwide.
American Medical Association: Media number is 312-464-4430
American Nurses Association – media contact: Mary McNamara, 301-628-5198, Mary.Mcnamara@ana.org
Healthcare Financial Management Association – a national association for health financial management professionals. Media office: 708-531-9600, pressroom@hfma.org.
There are national associations of experts in almost all of areas, from cardiology to nursing to hospital financial management.
Hospital Compare and Nursing Home Compare– consumer-oriented HHS Web sites that provide information on the quality of care provided by hospitals and nursing homes.
AHCJ Hospital Compare data – An easy-to-use set of spreadsheet files allowing a journalist to use filtering and sorting tools to find stories in hospital survey data.
AHCJ Nursing Home Compare data – A series of downloadable spreadsheet files of serious nursing home deficiencies and CMS-created ratings for each nursing home.
AHCJ’s downloadable books: “Covering Hospitals: Using Tools on the Web” and “Covering the Health of Local Nursing Homes.”
AHCJ tipsheet on covering hospital finances
National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform – a national nonprofit working for quality in long-term-care institutions. Media contact is Executive Director Sarah Wells, swells@nccnhr.org.
Sample story links
Hospital special master: Everything on the table at Landmark
Recession-driven cuts threaten efforts to expand adult day care
Partnering to serve patients and save dollars
Insurance
America’s Health Insurance Plans – a national association that represents health insurance providers. Media contact: 202-778-3200, press@ahip.org.
Employee Benefits Research Institute – works on encouraging and enhancing the development of sound employee benefit programs and public policy through research and education. Media contact: John MacDonald, director of media relations, 202-775-6349, macdonald@ebri.org.
FamiliesUSA – a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation of quality, affordable health care. Media contact: David Lemmon, 202-628-3030, dlemmon@familiesusa.org.
Leapfrog Group – is an organization supported by companies that purchase health care that encourages transparency, access to information and provides hospital ratings. Media contact: 202-292-6713, media@leapfroggroup.org.
National Association of Insurance Commissioners – the national association of state insurance regulators for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Media contact: Scott Holeman, 816-783-8909, news@naic.org.
Sample story links
Insurer aims to alter health-care fee model
Health assessments, education key parts of wellness initiatives
Shedding risk: The battle over bills
Government
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality – provides research and information with the goal of improving the quality of the nation’s health care services. Media contact: Karen Migdail, 301-427-1855, kmigdail@ahrq.gov.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – works on health promotion, disease and disability prevention and health threat preparedness. Media contacts vary depending upon the topic and can be reached at 404-639-3286 or media@cdc.gov.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – is the government’s office in charge of Medicare and Medicaid services. Media contact: Peter Ashkenaz, deputy director of media affairs: 202-690-6145 or oeabox@cms.hhs.gov.
Department of Health and Human Services – protects the health of Americans and provides essential human services. HHS Press Office: 202-690-6343 media@hhs.gov.
Kaiser Family Foundation side-by-side comparison of Health Policy proposals.
Sample article links
Missouri life sciences financing goes up in smoke
Corporate tax break comes under scrutiny
Mental health coverage gets shot at parity
Plastic surgeons cry foul over 'Botax' proposal In Senate health bill
Pharmaceuticals
American Pharmacists Association – is an association that represents more than 60,000 pharmacists. Media contact: Sharon Corbitt, director of external communications, 202-429-7537, scorbitt@aphanet.org.
Biotechnology Industry Organization – an industry advocacy business development and communications group, 202-962-9200.
Food and Drug Administration – is responsible for protecting the public health through assuring safety of human and veterinary drugs, medical products and devices and the nation’s food supply and cosmetics. Media contacts vary depending upon the topic and can be found at: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/MediaContacts.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine– the government body that researches alternative medicines and practices. Media contact: 301-496-7790, nccampress@mail.nih.gov.
National Institutes of Health – conducts and supports medical and behavioral research designed to improve the health of the nation. Media contact: 301-496-5787 or Don Ralbovsky at ralbovsd@od1tm1.od.nih.gov.
Sample story links
Menopause, as brought to you by big pharma
Is money tainting the plasma supply?
Gleevec’s lesson: Medical success trumps small market
Wal-Mart enters pharmacy benefit management services
Miscellaneous resources
Association of Health Care Journalists
American Bar Association Health Law Section
National health law program is a national law firm that works on improving care for minority, elderly, disabled and low-income populations. Local Legal Aid offices are often well versed in health issues, particularly those dealing with Medicaid. They can also sometimes provide sources.
Reporting on Health at the University of Southern California
Center for Studying Health System Change
Service Employees International Union is a group that can sometimes provide information about topics like nursing strikes or staffing reductions.
Kaiser Family Foundation – a nonprofit foundation focusing on major health care issues in the United States and global health policy. Media contact: Rakesh Singh, vice president of communications, 650-854-9400, rsingh@kff.org.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – an independent philanthropy devoted to improving health policy and practice. Media office 609-627-5937, media@rwjf.org.
