First, a description of the beat: Anna covers health policy, disparities, hospitals and elder care throughout California. She has written stories about how low health literacy can impact newly insured patients’ health, the rough start for California’s effort to move low-income seniors into managed care, an innovative public financing initiative for asthma prevention, a glitch in the new benefit for people with substance abuse disorder and how a transgender patient was able to complete her transition after getting ACA coverage. In 2014, she also wrote an investigative series on the problem-filled nursing home investigation process in Los Angeles County. Specific stories: 1 & 2. These were two stories in an occasional and extensive series about the lack of oversight of nursing homes in Los Angeles County. The reporting uncovered how the county public health department — facing a long backlog of nursing home complaints — instructed inspectors to close cases without fully investigating them. The second told the tale of one woman who filed a complaint against a nursing home after her mother’s death and waited for years for an answer. After Anna’s story ran, the woman finally got a response. Other stories in the series (not included here) found that the nursing home inspectors were falsifying records and that they were reducing penalties against nursing homes without justification. 3. The story was a feature about the changing role of pharmacists, who are increasingly caring directly for patients. California is ground zero for this, passing a law that gives pharmacists more authority. The change is controversial — in California and elsewhere. Please note: this story has a video, it is part of the submission. To see it, please click on the story’s url. 4. Mexican immigrants living in California continue to travel to Mexico for medical care, despite being newly insured through the Affordable Care Act.
