Category Archives: Health care reform

Minnesota journalist uncovers lawsuits Mayo Clinic filed against patients

Leave a reply

Molly Work

In July, US News and World Report ranked the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., as the nation’s best hospital for the seventh consecutive year.

Looking more closely at how US News assessed hospitals, reporters at Rochester’s daily newspaper, the Post Bulletin, noticed that on the issue of health equity, the Mayo Clinic was ranked significantly lower than other hospitals. The editors at US News defined charity care as, “How well hospital spending on free and discounted care for uninsured patients aligns with the proportion of uninsured in the surrounding community.”

Since September, Molly Castle Work, an award-winning investigative journalist (@mollycastlework), for the Post Bulletin, has published at least six articles about the Mayo Clinic and charity care. Check out her Shared Wisdom to learn more about her strategy for pursuing this story.

Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

Why it’s important to cover hospitals suing patients over medical debt 

Leave a reply

A survey from KFF shows one in seven adults in the United States who have health care debt say a medical provider has denied them care due to their debt. Source: KFF Health Care Debt Survey (Feb. 25-Mar. 20, 2022). https://www.kff.org/report-section/kff-health-care-debt-survey-main-findings/ accessed dec. 23, 2022.

Recent news shows the need for health care journalists to investigate the aggressive measures hospitals use when patients can’t pay their medical bills.

On Dec. 21, Noam N. Levey, an award-winning senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News (KHN), reported that when patients can’t pay their bills, hundreds of the nation’s hospitals file lawsuits against those patients, sell patients’ bad-debt accounts to debt buyers and report patients to credit rating agencies. 

Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

Reporters shed light on unsubstantiated drug price increases 

Leave a reply

The table shows the 10 prescription medications that had price increases in 2021 that were unsupported by new clinical evidence. Reprinted with permission. Source: Rind DM, Agboola F, Campbell J, Nikitin D, et al. Unsupported Price Increase Report: Unsupported Price Increases Occurring in 2021. December 6, 2022. ICER.

Last year, the makers of seven widely used prescription drugs raised prices substantially without any new clinical evidence to justify the increases, Ed Silverman reported at STAT News last week. 

Silverman based his reporting on an analysis from the independent nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) that analyzes evidence on the effectiveness and value of drugs and other medical services. ICER released that report, “Unsupported Price Increases (UPI) of prescription drugs in the United States,” on Tuesday, Dec. 6.  

Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

Journalists expose significant problems with Medicare Advantage plans

Leave a reply

Majority report from US Senate Finance Committee finds seniors subject to marketing scams from health insurers.

Seniors signing up for Medicare Advantage (MA) during open enrollment (which ends Dec. 7) have more reasons to worry now that reporters at Kaiser Health News, MedPage Today and elsewhere have continued to uncover significant problems with these private managed care plans. 

During open enrollment, reporters have a responsibility to explain the problems seniors may face with MA plans and to warn them about deceptive marketing practices.

And health care journalists should ask officials at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) why it sets higher rates for health insurance brokers selling MA plans than the rates it sets for brokers to register seniors in Medicare Supplement (also called Medigap) plans that might be more appropriate for their needs.  Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

Election coverage lessons on Medicaid expansion, abortion, medical debt and dental insurance

Leave a reply

South Dakota voters approve amendment to state constitution to expand access to Medicaid (Source: Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map, Kaiser Family Foundation, accessed Nov. 9, 2022.)

Even while votes are still being counted, there are important lessons to be learned from the midterm elections on Tuesday. 

One of the big lessons is that when voters are asked whether to expand Medicaid, they mostly vote in favor, as happened when South Dakota approved an amendment to the state constitution this week, requiring the state to expand access to Medicaid benefits to low-income residents. 

Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.