Judges’ comments:
With courage and candor, a reporter uses a daunting compilation of medical records, interviews with doctors and other caregivers and her own recollection to take readers on a compelling, bittersweet narrative of her and her husband’s seven-year battle with his cancer. End-of-life is often held up as a huge bucket of waste in the U.S. health-care system, and perhaps it is. But as the author and her husband rely on generous health-insurance, the hope of technology advances and the strength of their relationship to negotiate their “series of expensive last chances,” few easy choices are in sight.
1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
“End of Life: Lessons of a $618,616 Death ” by Amanda Bennett and Chuck Babcock.
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
March 15, 2010.
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
It is an examination, through one person’s personal story, of the costs of end-of-life care
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required?
How did this affect the work? Through HIPAA, every individual has the right to his or her own medical records. Because this was a personal story relating to the primary author’s husband, we were able to get and analyze every medical and insurance record relating to his care. This was a six-month endeavor that involved multiple insurance companies, doctors and other caregivers and Medicare records.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
We also went back and interviewed the oncologists, surgeons and intensive care physicians involved in his care, as well as drawing on industry experts.
6. Results (if any).
The story had huge impact: it was read by millions in Bloomberg Businessweek and on the Bloomberg terminal and was widely redistributed and posted. It was a leader in comment and discussion for weeks after and it drew an unprecedented 500 emails from Bloomberg terminal readers alone.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
N/a.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Have patience, and dig deep. Even though we have a right to our medical records does not mean that we will get them easily, or that when we have them that they will be easy to understand. The personal story had to be thoroughly backed by months of analysis of the records in order to come to the conclusions we did.