1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
Medical debt and uncompensated care: Two sides of the same health care coin
More Kansans defaulting on medical debt as economy remains sluggish Journalist
by Phil Cauthon
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
22-Nov-11
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Hospitals are reporting sharp increases in uncompensated care, and some report that the stereotype of uncompensated care patients being mostly homeless no longer applies. A more accurate description would be "A 30- or 35-year-old without health insurance who two months ago worked at Sprint," according to a Kansas City hospital official. This two-story package explores the trend in uncompensated care, and focuses on one patient who fits that new description.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Quarterly reports from Kansas hospitals detailing uncompensated care numbers.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
Extensive interviewing done with hospital executives (CEOs and CFOs) at the Kansas Hospital Association Convention in November. Interview with a 28-year-old with $350,000 in hospital debt.
6. Results (if any).
n/a
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.
Don't let mountains of stats get in the way of telling the human stories that those stats reflect. Focus on the human stories and use stats as support to show how generalizable (or not) the stories are.