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Tip sheetsJournalists and experts have written about covering health reform and presented discussions on the topic at AHCJ conferences and workshops. This is a collection of the most useful and relevant tips. Click the title of the tip sheet that interests you and you will be asked to login because these are available exclusively to AHCJ members.
Affordable Care Act (ACA)What reporters should watch for during this year’s open enrollment November 2018 As noted in a recent story for Washington Examiner, the Trump administration has instituted new regulations and changes for customers to navigate as they shop for health plans over the next several weeks. So keep these seven things in mind when reporting on open enrollment in your community. Keep these points in mind when covering the tax bill’s impact on health care
How to assess health care innovation centers popping up in your region
Since passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which emphasized the transition from patient volume to value, innovation centers have been popping up all over the country. Becker's Hospital Review has identified at least 50 hospitals with innovation programs. What you should know about new HHS rules on state control of health plans
How ACA repeal could impact mental health care February 2017 President Donald Trump promises to gut the federal law, which would include its substantial protections for people with mental conditions. Health care advocates warn that repealing the ACA would have a severe effect on the 43.6 million people living in the United States with a psychiatric illness and the 21.5 million with a substance abuse disorder, according to a 2014 government survey. In this tip sheet, Sarah Ferris runs down the key ways in which repealing the ACA could affect people with mental illnesses or addictions. These are some important issues to consider when reporting about repeal and replacement efforts. How Congressional Republicans plan to gut the ACA
Even with Trump in the White House, the GOP won’t be able to get a full repeal of the ACA through the narrowly divided Senate. Instead, Republicans will use a legislative tactic called reconciliation, which will enable them to push massive budget-related bills through the Senate without the threat of a Democratic filibuster. Sarah Ferris has prepared a guide to some of the bewildering D.C. budget lingo and process for this to take place. Suggestions on writing accurately about rising premiums
November 2016 But we need to do it accurately, not sloppily. Here are a few quick suggestions: Five things to know about ACA enrollment challenges for ‘young invincibles’
October 2016 Young, healthy Americans are a crucial demographic to the success of the Affordable Care Act. Their participation in Obamacare exchanges is important to help balance out the cost of older enrollees more likely to get sick and need medical care more often. Selling insurance across state lines: What reporters need to know
April 2016 How is this proposal for interstate insurance sales different than what currently exists in the marketplace, where the nation’s largest health insurers (Aetna, United HealthCare, etc.) already sell policies in multiple states? And what evidence do we have about whether the idea would be successful? What has happened in the handful of states that have already tried it? What effect would it have on the uninsured? Rachana Pradhan covers a few things you need to know. Congress votes to give states more say in defining the small group insurance market
October 2015 But in a rare bipartisan move on ACA-related legislation this week, the House of Representatives, followed by the Senate, swiftly and quietly voted to make this change optional for states as part of what has become known as the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act (PACE). The House voted on September 29 and the Senate on October 1. How to gauge ‘success’ at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation August 2015 CMMI also is supposed to help spread new ideas so they’ll take root in the real world. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Serviceshas the authority to expand approaches that reduce spending – and halt those that do not. This is a more flexible approach than officials had with “demonstration projects” prior to the ACA. Acronyms, health care and the poor: Understanding hospital safety net payments July 2015 So what are these payments? And how do they differ from a Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) arrangement? At least nine states, including Florida, have some kind of Medicaid waiver arrangement with the federal government that involves payments to safety net hospitals and, in at least some states, community health centers. Affordable Care Act: What is 'premium support?' April 2011 It's in the news now because House Budget chairman Paul Ryan wants to turn Medicare into a "premium support" program. It's not a totally new idea – House Republicans, including former Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Ways and Means chairman Bill Thomas, had somewhat similar ideas that began circulating in the mid-1990s. But the Ryan idea is starker - or bolder, depending on your perspective. AHCJ's health reform topic leader Joanne Kenen explains what it really means and points members to some resources to help sort it out for readers, listeners and viewers. Health Coverage under the Affordable Care Act April 2011 Lessons learned from Massachusetts: Covering the impact of health reform on a local level April 2011 Affordable Care Act: The politics of health care, year two March 2011 The Affordable Care Act: What to cover at the one-year mark
As the anniversary approaches, AHCJ's new health reform topic leader, Joanne Kenen, shares some topics that reporters may want to look at in their states and communities, as well as resources for covering them. Officials, health system administrator discuss challenges, implementation of the Affordable Care Act March 2011 Consumers and the ACADon't stick to experts: How to find people who acquired insurance under the ACA
May 2015 This tip sheet by Shannon Muchmore, health care reporter at the Tulsa World, gives some hints. She shares ideas on finding people, what to ask them about their insurance coverage and some story ideas, as well as some important reminders for reporters. She also shares some of the stories she's written that include consumers' experiences and perceptions.
Who will help consumers understand their options? August 2013 Who are they and what do they do? Getting people to sign up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act will take more than a few public service ads and some brochures. So the law envisioned having “navigators” and other community organizations and trained individuals help them. Various advocacy groups also will mount volunteer efforts. Understanding the role of these people and organizations will be important as the federal government is set to announce on Aug. 15 who will get navigator grants from a pool of $54 million. Health reform topic leader Joanne Kenen breaks it down and identifies some local stories that reporters should be working on. DataDatasets: Reform by the Numbers June 2014 The first health insurance marketplace numbers are in: What do they tell us? November 2013 Business of Health Care: Tapping the holy grail of hospital data October 2011 Electronic medical recordsElectronic medical records: Promised land or mirage? October 2011 Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, discussed privacy and security concerns, as well as suggesting some possible story ideas for reporters. Employers and the ACAEmployer plans may get whacked by GOP changes to Obamacare
Employers are worrying that when it comes to providing affordable health insurance for their workers, the Republican cure might be worse than the disease. Jay Hancock of Kaiser Health News explains the issues and why this is a story that reporters should be paying attention to. Reporting on how employers might use self-insurance to sidestep ACA rules July 2013 But some people fear that self-insuring companies could skim too many young folks out of the small-business exchanges and insurance company costs and losses could soar, insurers could exit and the exchanges could break down. Health care costs Check out these resources before reporting on drug prices
June 2016 A great example is "The Dysfunction in Drug Prices," reported by Rockoff and his colleagues last year. It won a 2015 Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism for writing on the business of health and it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Rockoff spoke about drug costs at Health Journalism 2016 in Cleveland. In an essay accompanying his AHCJ award submission, Rockoff and his co-authors wrote about the lack of a centralized database on drug prices and how they basically had to build their own. Short of that, this tip sheet suggests some ways you can find and understand the data. 340B drug pricing: Cutting through the controversy
January 2015 340B is a discount program that requires pharmaceutical companies to sell outpatient drugs – both branded and generic – to eligible health care organizations at significantly reduced prices, up to half off in some cases. The program was created in 1992 to help provider organizations that serve a lot of poor people stretch their resources. Over the years, the eligibility criteria to participate has expanded repeatedly. Currently, safety-net hospitals, children’s hospitals, critical access hospitals, federal health centers and other organizations are eligible; organizations that fall into those categories must register and enroll in the 340B program. Check here to find 340B organizations in your community. Six things to remember when reporting on health care costs
It is a complex topic, with chargemaster prices, what insurers paid and what consumers pay (if anything). Then there are the administrative rules set by Medicare and Medicaid and the negotiated rates between insurers and providers. It's daunting, but three reporters have teamed up to offer guidance for reporting on health care costs. Health care workforceChanges coming to health care workforce ripe for coverage
April 2013 Deficit reductions out of Washington will squeeze the dollars fueling health care jobs. That means cuts from Medicare and Medicaid, as well as grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies. The recent across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester hit medical research and public health particularly hard. Hundreds of billions of dollars likely will be cut from future Medicare spending, cuts that come on top of Affordable Care Act reductions that already have many hospitals tightening their belts. Sanger-Katz urges reporters to cover the health care workforce in their own communities and, in this tip sheet, she points out potential stories, asks key questions and offers some essential resources. The changing health workforce is a key part of the story of health reform, and it hasn’t yet been well told. Health exchanges/marketplacesSeven ideas to cover health exchanges before the rollout
September 2013 Beyond premiums: Five things to know about health care costs in the exchanges
September 2013 Health Journalism 2011: Health reform presentationsWhat you need to know about ACOs (Katherine Schneider presentation) April 2011 Where do they go from the hospital? (Mary Naylor presentation) April 2011 What you need to know about accountable care organizations (Steven Lieberman presentation) April 2011 Can advance care planning help you avoid the treatment trap? (Rosemary Gibson presentation) April 2011 Future of nursing: Campaign for action (Susan Hassmiller presentation) April 2011 Accountable care organizations: Impact on hospitals (Lawton Robert Burns presentation) April 2011 Health insurance: Changes that are coming fast (Jack Burke presentation) April 2011 Covering health reform issues (Tips from Julie Appleby) April 2011 Health Journalism 2010: Health reform presentationsUnderstanding the fundamentals of health insurance & implications for reform (Tim Lee presentation) May 2010 Will More Physicians Improve the Health of Patients? (David Goodman) May 2010 Assessing Health Reform: Is There a Looming Doctor Shortage? (Kevin Barnett presentation) May 2010 Health reform resources for reportersQuestions to consider when covering health insurance reform proposals Now that election day is only about a month away, one of the most important issues the country faces is how a new Congress and a potentially new administration will address the need for health insurance reform. For health care journalists writing about health reform now and what might happen in 2021, it’s instructive to consider what Wendell Potter, a former public relations executive for health insurers, would suggest when covering this issue. The founder of Tarbell, a donor-funded and subscription-driven health care news site, Potter is one of the co-founders of Business Leaders for Health Care Transformation, a coalition of business leaders supporting the idea of a health care system that covers everyone with essential services regardless of income. As a former executive for Humana and Cigna, Potter has good advice for health care journalists. During a recent telephone interview, offered a number of tips for reporters to consider. Covering health reform resources There are ample resources for covering health policy at the state and federal level. Here are some particularly useful ones – but they will lead you to others. March 2012 Three health reform issues to watch in the states (and what to write about them!) April 2011 Transcript: What’s next? Reporting on health reform between now and 2014 May 2010 Health reporting resources for journalists on state and local government beats
The good news: There’s a wealth of government and nongovernmental organization resources to draw from on health topics. Veteran reporter Nancy Cook Lauer has tips and an extensive list of resources for government reporters who find themselves covering the unfamiliar territory of health care. Responses to the Supreme Court's health reform decision Health care reform has passed: What's next? March 2010 Five common mistakes to avoid on the health policy beat
June 2013 Carol Eisenberg, a senior editor at Kaiser Health News, offers some helpful tips for understanding health policy and communicating it accurately to your readers, viewers and listeners. High-risk insurance poolsCovering high-risk insurance pools: Mike Shields May 2010 Apart from being a policy story, it's of great interest to all your readers, viewers or listeners who have pre-existing conditions and are struggling to find coverage. In this tip sheet, Mike Shields, managing editor of the Kansas Health Institute News Service, shares some story ideas, suggestions and resources. HospitalsFive things to know about hospital consolidation
February 2016 But the trend has drawn criticism from insurers, state attorneys general and federal antitrust enforcers, who warn that consolidation can also give hospitals monopoly power to drive up prices and hurt consumers. Here are five things to know when you report on hospital mergers and efforts by antitrust officials to challenge them. Finding the full story behind hospital mergers, consolidations March 2015
The recent HHS announcement that Medicare would tie 30 percent of payments to alternative models, such as accountable care organizations or bundled payment arrangements by the end of 2016, and 50 percent by the end of 2018, furthered many health system executives' beliefs that the key to survival is the ability to manage population health. And that is best done with large populations. That's a big reason why we see so much consolidation, but in crowded markets, such as New York, New Jersey and California, it's only a part of the story. (In smaller markets, such as Idaho, the FTC 's view of whether a merger will create an anti-competitive environment is the most important question.) In the February issue of Capital Magazine, I looked at New York's five large health systems and the strategies they were employing to diversify their revenue base while preparing to play in a post-ACA, value-based world. Rules could change for 'critical access hospitals;' what reporters should know
January 2013 Recently, several proposals floating around Washington, including one from President Obama, recommend narrowing the definition to help weed out some of the spending from the program. Jenny Gold, of Kaiser Health News, has written about critical access hospitals and offers background, questions reporters should be asking and resources to support their reporting. Immigrants and the ACAImmigrants and the Affordable Care Act April 2013 MedicaidCoronavirus is shaking up states’ coverage expansion plans
Here, I’ll highlight a few of the most notable states, including the status of Medicaid block grant requests. Understanding 'partial Medicaid expansions'
In a new tip sheet Rachana Pradhan – who had been covering Medicaid deeply at Politico and is now moving to KHN – explains what you need to know about partial expansion. Read more about the policy, the politics, the funding – and the impact on the uninsured. Finding fresh ways to report on the rural hospital crisis
Here are some lessons that Bram Sable-Smith learned while reporting a series of stories last year on the rural hospital in Pemiscot County, Mo., the state’s poorest county. Understanding how health advocates, legislators are wrestling with Medicaid work requirements
March 2018 The Department of Health and Human Services’ recent green light for work requirements, drug tests, premiums and other policies rejected by previous administrations is attracting the interest of states that already expanded Medicaid and are now looking to tighten restrictions on the program, as well as states that never expanded Medicaid in the first place. But for states looking to implement the newly-allowed restrictions, many difficult questions lie ahead. Here’s a guide to understanding some of the economic and ideological battles playing out in the states. Is Medicaid managed care coming to your state? Keep these coverage tips in mind
Although research is mixed about whether managed care saves money for states, programs have exploded nationwide because health plans typically are paid a fixed amount per enrollee, which helps states predict their costs for the year. This is an important story to follow in your state. Kristen Schorsch explains six things to pay attention to. Finding the stories about how the AHCA would affect Medicaid, older adults
Because Medicaid is a jointly operated program, federal actions often require state reactions and state budgets provide a trove of stories. Medicaid is among any state’s most expensive, and fastest growing, programs so every governor looks for ways to contain costs. Making sense – and stories – of Medicaid May 2011
If it seems like the Medicaid headlines are going in several directions at once – that's because they are. Expand, contract, reinvent, blow up, save, destroy ... What's really going on? MedicareJournalist explains why Medigap plans might be best for seniors There’s no denying that MA plans are attractive to seniors because many of them offer multiple benefits for low monthly premiums. But the TV ads and almost all the promotional materials from the Medicare program and the insurers themselves do not mention that when enrolling in MA, seniors face a huge risk because MA plans are unlikely to provide the best coverage for seniors over time. Latest innovations in Medicare Don’t look only to Washington policymakers for strategies to control medical costs and improve care for our aging population. New pilot projects that could accomplish these goals, which are at the heart of health reform, are being tested in communities across the country. In this tip sheet, reporter Susan Jaffe provides an overview of projects sponsored by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, directs journalists to helpful resources, and supplies an extensive list of potential story ideas. Rural healthFinding fresh ways to report on the rural hospital crisis
Here are some lessons that Bram Sable-Smith learned while reporting a series of stories last year on the rural hospital in Pemiscot County, Mo., the state’s poorest county. How will rural areas fare after health reform? June 2011 Supreme CourtTools for understanding, explaining King v. Burwell
March 2015 After the state cases and 2012 National Federation of Independent Business case, it is the third case that poses an existential threat to the Affordable Care Act. (Hobby Lobby and other contraception-related cases wouldn’t unspool the structure of the whole ACA, only that aspect of women’s preventive health.) This case isn’t about whether the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. (The 2012 case was.) This is about interpreting the text, and whether the language of the law allows the subsidies in the federal exchange states. The U.S. Supreme Court and health reform: 2012
March 2012 We asked Goldman to address five questions for journalists:
Along with his answers, we are including some links to further reading, webcasts and health and legal blogs that may be useful. Responses to the Supreme Court's health reform decision |
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