Career Development: Fellowships, Internships, Training & Grants

AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance

See the list of past fellows.

A fellowship for supporting big reporting projects

Issues with the U.S. health care system are often obvious — from large swaths of uninsured residents and junk insurance plans, to high maternal mortality rates and preventable medical errors. But what is at the root of issues like these? What could an equitable health care system look like? 

We want you to dig in and find out. 

Through the AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, you can pursue a significant reporting project related to the U.S. health care system at the local, regional and/or national level. 

This fellowship allows mid-career journalists to maintain their regular employment while working on a major project over a 12-month calendar year. You’ll pursue the projects with the support of your newsrooms or arranged outlets, which commit to publish or air the work.

We believe that issues of health equity impact every facet of the health care system, which is why we’re specifically interested in projects focused on health equity. This might include racial disparities within a community, gaps in public health inclusion, unstable housing, insurance access, food insecurity, violence as a health issue, how health care institutions or systems are applying a racial equity lens to their policies and practices or otherwise addressing inequities or disparities, or other examinations of systemic problems that have become so apparent over the last few years.

Guidance is provided by AHCJ mentors through customized seminars on health care systems, conference calls and email consultations. The fellowship covers the cost of attending the seminars and the annual AHCJ conference, as well as a $4,000 project allowance to defray the cost of field reporting, health data analysis and other project-related research. In addition, you will receive a $2,500 fellowship award upon the successful completion of the project.

Application Deadline: 5 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 13.

 

Apply Here

 

Expectations

Candidates should be U.S.-based, working journalists who qualify for AHCJ professional membership and have several years’ experience in health reporting. We value and celebrate diversity and the building of a more inclusive journalism landscape, and encourage journalists of all backgrounds and identities to apply.

Each employer (or freelancer’s intended outlet) will be asked to provide a letter of recommendation pledging to support the fellow to:

- Participate in the fellowship, including attendance at seminars, a conference and workshop.

- Travel as needed to complete the project.

- Provide adequate time for the fellow to report and write the project.

- Provide any editorial and technical support required to publish or air the work by Dec. 31, 2024.

- Allow AHCJ and The Commonwealth Fund to republish or otherwise make available the completed project as an educational tool, with appropriate credit given to the original outlet. 

- Include mention of the reporter’s fellowship support in the package or series.

What's covered

The fellowship provides:

- Seminar trips, including food, lodging and travel within the United States.

- A project allowance of up to $4,000 that can be tapped for field reporting trips, data purchases and other approved research expenses.

- Attendance at the AHCJ annual conference, including travel, lodging and registration.

- Attendance at your choice of a one-day AHCJ regional workshop, including travel, lodging and registration.

- One year's professional membership in AHCJ.

- A $2,500 fellowship award for the successful completion of the project before the end of the year.

Anticipated schedule

- January 2024: Fellowship orientation and Seminar 1 (New York City)

- June 2024: Health Journalism 2024 and Seminar 2 (Location to be announced)

- September 2024: Seminar 3 (New York City)

Application checklist

- A two- to three-page project proposal outlining your topic, why you think it’s a good story for your audience, reporting locations, potential sources and how the topic is revelatory as a subject (or novel in its approach).

- Cover letter introducing yourself, offering a snapshot of your proposed project and explaining why you are applying for the fellowship, the impact reporting on this project will have (quantitative and qualitative), and the primary audience/demographic for the project (who you’re serving).

- A current resume or CV.

- A letter of recommendation from your current employer that addresses the benefits of the fellowship to you and the news organization’s audience as well as the employer’s commitment to support the project as detailed in the Expectations section above, including scheduling sufficient time for you to pursue the project. Freelance applicants should submit a letter of recommendation from a client or assigning editor willing to provide an outlet for the final project.

- A work sample published or aired during the past 12 months. 

Questions? Contact Susan Cunningham at susan@healthjournalism.org

 

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2023 fellows

(Click names to see their projects.)

Lauren Clason, health care reporter, CQ Roll Call

• Mississippi Delta hospitals battle financial factors to survive

• Mississippi community workers battle maternal mortality crisis

Penny Dickerson, innovation and entrepreneur reporter, Jacksonville Business Journal

• Hope Deferred: Despite best efforts, many Floridians may lose Medicaid health benenfits with dental coverage, setting off a bevy of health challenges
  

• Stroke Awareness: May brings attention to a serious silent killer

• Life after prostate cancer: Reliable research and sound support are key

Keren Landman, senior reporter for health and science, Vox

Katia Riddle, freelance reporter, NPR

• Few are tackling stigma in addiction care. Some in Seattle want to change that

• One camp at a time, a Seattle group is transforming its approach to homelessness

2022 fellows

(Click names to see their projects.)

Theodore Alcorn, independent journalist

• Alcohol Deaths Claim Lives of Working-Age Americans

• Politics trumps health in state’s response to alcohol crisis

• Blind Drunk

• Legislators consider key questions on alcohol tax reforms

• Lawmakers say alcohol on 2023 session agenda

Sarah Boden, health and science reporter for 90.5 WESA News, Pittsburgh’s NPR station

Arielle Dreher, health care reporter for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington

• Arkansas medical leaders address health disparities for Marshallese community

• After years, Congress restored Marshallese residents’ right to Medicaid. How Washington’s push to get them signed up is playing out

• Medicaid redetermination leaves Pacific Islanders vulnerable

Emily Green, managing editor, The Lund Report.

• Oregon’s Addiction Care Rollout Puts Peers In A Precarious Position

• Few Obtain Treatment In First Year Of Oregon Drug-Decriminalization Grants (also published on OPB)

• ‘People Are Dying’ While State Bureaucracy Holds Up Treatment Dollars, Say Measure 110 Proponents (also published on OPB)

• Rewards For Staying In Drug Treatment Work, Now Oregon Is Poised To Pay For Them (also an audio story on Oregon Public Broadcasting, found here.)

• Measure 110 Funds For Addiction Services Roll Out Belatedly As Auditors Spotlight Problems (also published on OPB)

• Tasked With Spending Windfall, Measure 110 Council Struggles

• Meth Has Changed, And It’s Sabotaging Oregon’s Mental Health System

• Oregon’s Meth Problem: More Money Than Leadership

• Peer mentors are key to Oregon’s Measure 110 success, but they are working in a broken system

• Officials, Proponents Celebrate Measure 110 Funding Milestone, Admit Mistakes

Cecilia Hernandez-Cromwell, news director and anchor at Telemundo Noticiero Oklahoma

• Oklahoma ante la pandemia del COVID-19

• Oklahoma ante la pandemia del covid-19: Parte 2 - El departamento de salud del condado de Oklahoma City

• Oklahoma ante la pandemia del COVID-19:Parte 3 - Comité de Alcance Latinx COVID-19

• Oklahoma ante la pandemia del COVID-19-Parte 4 - UMA Tulsa

• Oklahoma ante la pandemia del COVID-19-Parte 5 - Missouri

2021 fellows

(Click names to see their projects.)

Erin Durkin, health care correspondent, The National Journal (@ErinDurkin2)

• Healing from the pandemic in Indian Country: Oklahoma tribes confront mental-health challenges

• Healing from the pandemic in Indian Country: What’s next for Native American mental-health policy?

• Healing from the pandemic in Indian Country: The push to cover traditional medicine

Melba Newsome, independent journalist writing for The Charlotte Observer

• Treatment for opioid use disorder – not separate but still unequal

• Contradictory state laws aimed at stopping drug overdoses aren’t applied equally

• Native Americans look for ways to stop soaring overdose deaths

Matthew Ong, associate editor, medical investigative reporter, The Cancer Letter (@mattobh)

• Cancer centers establish DEI Network as NCI issues CCSG guidelines to enhance diversity in the oncology workforce

• DEI Network founders: Let’s work together to increase diversity across all cancer centers in America

• Project Equity: FDA considers options to increase diverse enrollment in clinical trials

• FDA’s Lola Fashoyin-Aje: Stop getting stuck on the “risks” of diversity in drug development, it’s time to fix disparities in access

• NCTN group chairs, experts: Diverse representation of minorities in clinical trials and drug development saves lives

• Caryn Lerman’s AACI presidential initiative: Close the diversity gap in the cancer centers’ workforce

• Ben Harder: U.S. News may use health equity measures to rank hospitals in the future

• Should hospitals, cancer centers be ranked according to their health equity scorecards?

• Racial minority patients underrepresented in 80% of hospitals, U.S. News “equity measures” find

• To combat health disparities in communities of color, City of Hope recruits its most diverse class for leadership training in 2021

• Peter Pisters: I want MD Anderson to be seen as an exemplar in our work on diversity, equity, and inclusion

• To address disparities, Cleveland health systems re-imagine diversity, inclusion, equity efforts at the executive level

• Single digits: Black, Hispanic scientists strikingly underrepresented at NCI among senior workforce and grantees

• Racial, ethnic minorities are systemically underrepresented in leadership teams across NCI cancer centers

• Will cancer centers remain committed to improving equity in the long term?

Kristen Schorsch, reporter, WBEZ, Chicago Public Media (@kschorsch)

• Saving Mercy Hospital

Farah Yousry, health equity reporter, WFYI Side Effects Public Media (@Farah_Yousrym)

• To understand the real toll of gun violence, look to survivors and their families

• Parks are essential for quality of life. But what if a community park doesn’t serve its people. (WFYI | Side Effects Public Media | Indianapolis Recorder)

• He got in trouble as a teen. Now he coaches football to keep children off that path. (WFYI | Side Effects Public Media | Indianapolis Recorder)

• Pandemic poses threat to lead poisoning programs for kids (Indianapolis Recorder)

• Reporter check-in on All IN: debrief on Indianapolis Black neighborhood challenges (WFYI)

 

2020 fellows

(Click names to see their projects.)

Carol Cruzan Morton, independent journalist writing for The Oregonian (@CarolMorton)

• Morton will investigate suicide data being collected at local, state, and national levels and how existing and innovative data approaches are working to understand and prevent suicides.

• Gun advocates take the lead in embracing suicide prevention message

Nicholas Florko, Washington correspondent, Stat (@NicholasFlorko)

• Florko will study three states' unique strategies to eliminate Hepatitis C in prisons.

• Death sentence (eight-part series)

• Why two states struggled to eliminate hepatitis C, despite new approaches to paying for costly drugs

• With a promising new plan to pay for pricey cures, two states set out to eliminate hepatitis C. But cost hasn’t been the biggest problem

Sebastián Martínez Valdivia, public health reporter, KBIA (@sebastiansings)

• Martínez will investigate the effects of automation on Missouri's Medicaid renewals program, which has dropped more people's coverage than most other states.

• Thousands of Missourians in Medicaid expansion limbo

Alice Ollstein, health care reporter, Politico (@AliceOllstein)

• Ollstein will examine how state and federal policy changes including the Title X rule are impacting the epidemic of sexually transmitted infections.

• How some — but not all — dating apps are taking on the STD epidemic

• HIV patients left vulnerable amid pandemic, experts say

• HIV service providers sound alarm over coronavirus disruptions. ‘We have to keep our eye on the ball’

• What STDs Can Tell Us About How To Fight Covid

• Covid-fueled boom in at-home tests may next extend to STDs

Luanne Rife, health reporter, The Roanoke Times (@LuanneRife)

• Rife will explore Virginia policies that keep geriatric mental health patients locked in state psychiatric hospitals long after they are medically cleared for discharge.

• Psychiatric hospitals continue to treat patients, but keep wary eye out for virus

• Unwanted care, unexpected bills: When their dad was kept in a state hospital against their will, a family learns that they will bear the financial burden

• No way out of state hospitals for some elderly psychiatric patients

• All of us have a history': Fighting stigma to find homes for Virginia's elderly psychiatric patients

Jocelyn Wiener, independent journalist writing for CalMatters (@jocelynwiener)

• Wiener will examine the roots of California’s mental health crisis and explore possible solutions that may exist elsewhere.

 

2019 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Erin Alberty, reporter, The Salt Lake Tribune (@erinalberty)

• Alberty will report on Utah’s efforts to point patients to cheaper prescription drugs from other countries and whether they will impact the market.

• Utah lawmakers look for drug cost solutions as one warns: 'People are going without their medicines and bad things are happening’

• As costs of insulin rise, Utah diabetics are going online to plead for the drug from strangers

• Prescriptions from Mexico? Utah is paying public employees to make the trip

Max Blau, independent journalist writing for The (Macon, Ga.) Telegraph (@MaxBlau)

• Blau will examine privatized correctional health care in Georgia, how it evolved and how it compares to other states.

• For sheriffs, healthcare for inmates can be a burden. For one doctor, it has been the opportunity of a lifetime.

• When county governments outsource jail health care, Georgia inmates pay the price

• This controversial former death row doctor built an empire from treating Georgia inmates

• ‘They only cut off half my left foot.’ What happens when inmate care goes wrong in Georgia?

Blake Farmer, reporter, Nashville Public Radio (@flakebarmer)

• Farmer will focus on the hurdles that can sometimes obstruct quality end-of-life care.

• The Cost Of Dying: Hospice Industry’s Most Profitable Patients Get The Least Help

• The Cost Of Dying: Hospice’s Biggest Fans Now Have Second Thoughts

• We Need Your Help Reporting On Care At The End Of Life

• End Of Life Planning And Care

• Patients Want To Die At Home, But Home Hospice Care Can Be Tough On Families

Naseem Miller, reporter, Orlando Sentinel (@NaseemMiller)

• Miller will study what’s driving high rates of infant mortality and preterm birth in pockets of Central Florida.

• More than 1,300 Florida parents had babies die before 1st birthday. Doctors race to find out why.

• Searing grief of infant death, miscarriage too often goes unspoken

• Infant mortality rates have improved across Florida, but Orange County’s has not changed in a decade. Why?

 

2018 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Nick Budnick, reporter, Portland Tribune, Portland, Ore.

• Budnick focused on the evolution of the Medicaid-funded Oregon Health Plan in the age of Obamacare, including enrollment and system performance.

• State health costs soar, despite reforms' promise

• Oregon health reform claim meets reality

• Public gets sneak peek at Oregon Health Plan's future

• State oversight of care lags under Oregon Health Plan

Kathleen Burge, independent journalist writing for CommonHealth/WBUR, Boston

• Burge examined the growing specialty of palliative care and how cultural norms, provider training, treatment decisions and economics are all involved in seeking improved life in Americans’ final years, months and days.

• When Patients Can't Be Cured: Mass. Med Schools Teaching More End-Of-Life Care

• Dress Rehearsal For Death: Using Virtual Reality To Foster Empathy For Dying Patients

Audrey Dutton, reporter, Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho

• Dutton investigated the barriers to effective mental health treatment in rural Idaho and how lack of access is causing serious crises and deaths.

• This mental health worker on wheels meets clients where they are. Even at gas stations.

• Idaho has only 2 independent psychiatric hospitals. Now 1 is headed for bankruptcy.

• Her death leaves her family wondering: Did Idaho’s health care system fail her?

• Police call this mental health crisis program 'a godsend.' Could it work in Idaho?

• The state knew he'd turn violent without meds. So did he. But was anybody checking?

• She went to the hospital for mental illness. She ended up charged with 2 felonies.

• Patients in crisis can become felons under battery law, warns lawmaker urging change

• Bill to fix health care battery law won’t be heard; mentally ill can still be charged

• Idaho paid $8M for 2,400 psych hospitalizations. Guess how much therapy that buys under Medicaid?

• She can’t afford mental health care. Medicaid expansion changes that

• Facebook group

Benjamin Hardy, Arkansas Nonprofit News Network

• Hardy examined Medicaid in Arkansas, with an emphasis on the costs and benefits of Arkansas Works — the state’s privatized approach to Medicaid expansion.

• Medicaid advocate criticizes Arkansas Works' email-only reporting for work requirements

• Some working poor may still lose Medicaid under Arkansas’s new work requirements, study finds

• ARChoices rule blocked: DHS action on home-care program was 'calculated disobedience' of court order, judge says

• First, get a job: Arkansas's Medicaid work requirements begin

• Scrubbed from the system: Why Medicaid enrollment has dropped by almost 60,000 people in 18 months

• Work requirement bars over 4,000 from receiving Medicaid coverage

• Assisted living facilities warn 21.7 percent rate cut will force closures

• When Arkansas Works doesn't: Red tape and a confusing website cut off health insurance for thousands of working people

• Is Arkansas's work requirement rule working?

• Push pause on Arkansas's Medicaid work requirement, federal oversight panel says

• Arkansas’s health insurance rates remain low, compared to neighbors

• Work Requirement Ends Coverage for 4,600 More Arkansans

• Arkansas a 'cautionary tale' for states considering Medicaid work requirements, health advocates say

• Ruling on Medicaid work requirement expected by end of March, judge says

 

2017 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Jessica Bylander, senior editor, Health Affairs

• Bylander explored how health reform has affected American Indians living on reservations and where health system innovation is occurring in Indian Country.

• Using Federal Funds To Buy Obamacare For Native Americans

• Propping Up Indian Health Care Through Medicaid

• Designing A Health System That Works For The Tribe

• Meeting The Needs Of Aging Native Americans

Brenda Goodman, senior news writer, WebMD

• Goodman’s project examined maternal death in the states, with concentrated comparisons between California and Texas, and how risk assessments and monitoring may vary.

• Death By Birth: Bearing the Burden of Maternal Mortality

• When A Mother Dies: Calista’s family struggles to understand her death

• Getting Care in the 4^th Trimester

• The Time After Childbirth Is More Dangerous Than You Think: What to Watch For

Markian Hawryluk, health reporter, Bend (Ore.) Bulletin (now with Kaiser Health News)

• Hawryluk focused on how well Oregon is handling treatment of those addicted to opiates and where gaps may exist in the system.

• Cities consider safe injection sites to battle overdose deaths

• Proven treatment for opioid addiction underused

• Fighting heroin with heroin

• Overdose epidemic builds new empathy for people with addiction

• Opioid crisis: Pain patients pushed to the brink

• State of addiction: A project about opioids

• Is pain all in your head?

• Opioid survey

Erin Mershon, Washington correspondent, Stat (now news editor)

• Mershon’s project focused on how some rural states have maintained competitive insurance marketplaces while neighboring states now offer little choice.

• This Tennessee insurer doesn’t play by Obamacare’s rules — and the GOP sees it as the future

• Trumpcare: Big bills in small towns (PDF 1.3MB)

• Obamacare's new frontier: Alaska blazes a trail to bolster health insurance (PDF 1.3MB)

Bram Sable-Smith, lead reporter, health & wealth desk, KBIA-Columbia, Mo. (now with Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism)

• Sable-Smith examined the state of rural hospitals in Missouri and which specific decisions lead some to survive, while others falter and close.

• Trump Administration Rule Scales Back Program Keeping Rural Hospitals Afloat

• Vulnerable Rural Hospitals Face Tough Decisions On Profitable But Questionable Billing Schemes

• To Survive, Rural Hospitals Need To Grow—But The Demographics Don’t Add Up

• For Rural Hospitals Already on the Brink, GOP’s Proposed Medicaid Cuts Would Hit Hard

• As Rural Counties Lose Obstetrics, Women Give Birth Far From Home

• KBIA wins National Edward R. Murrow Award for Continuing Coverage for its coverage of the rural hospital crisis in Missouri

 

2016 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Dan Diamond, author, Politico Pulse

• Diamond focused on health disparities and whether community benefit endeavors help the poorest neighborhoods.

• How hospitals got richer off Obamacare

• How the Cleveland Clinic grows healthier while its neighbors stay sick

Glenn Howatt, health care reporter, Minneapolis Star Tribune

• Howatt mapped disparities by Census tract to provide as detailed a picture of neighborhood life expectancy and mortality as possible.

• A Minneapolis neighborhood improves health from grassroots up

• Using data to track patients, Twin Cities clinics save millions while improving care

Stephanie Innes, senior reporter, (Tucson) Arizona Daily Star (now with The Arizona Republic)

• Innes explained how difficult it is to make a well-informed decision in choosing an Arizona hospital, nursing home or assisted-living facility.

• Hospital failures, lapses kept under wraps

• Facilities for elderly duck responsibility, advocates say

• Medical misdiagnoses put pressure on patients to stay engaged

• Hospital stays can bring on sudden — usually temporary — signs of dementia

JoAnn Mar, producer, KALW-San Francisco

• The End of Life radio series:

• Advance Care Planning

• Palliative Care

• Advance Directives

• Physician-Assisted Dying

Misty Williams, health care policy reporter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (now editor of state news at AARP)

• Williams examined access to mental health care for children in Georgia and what a lack of treatment means for families and the state.

 

2015 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Rick Jurgens, reporter, Valley News (New Hampshire)

• Jurgens focused on the different approaches to health care coverage underway in New Hampshire and neighboring Vermont.

• A Failure to Measure Up; On Mental Health, Twin States Lag

• Evolution of Approach

• Vt. Spends More, but Impact Is Unclear

• As Mental Health Care Evolved, State Resources Fell Behind

• Falling Through the Gaps; Community Mental Health Care Continues to Be Vulnerable

• Flagship Hospitals Continue to Have a Role to Play

• Mental Health Care A Very Difficult System to Navigate

• Despite Offerings, Nursing Home Beds and Funds Still Lacking

• Regardless of Status, Nursing Homes Face Similar Challenges

• N.H., Vt. Working to Bolster Care Support Services

• Demand for Care Spurs Action

• National Chain Applies to Buy Five Vermont Nursing Homes

Sarah Kliff, senior editor, Vox

• Kliff focused on fatal medical errors and what differentiates hospitals with high and low rates.

• Medical errors in America kill more people than AIDS or drug overdoses. Here's why. | Video | Form to report patient harm

• 9 facts about medical errors you should know before entering a hospital

• Do no harm: There’s an infection hospitals can nearly always prevent. Why don’t they?

• Fatal mistakes: Doctors and nurses make thousands of deadly errors every year. They are reprimanded. Do they also deserve support?

Beth Kutscher, finance reporter, Modern Healthcare (now managing editor at LinkedIn News)

• Kutscher compared the financial performance of hospitals and hospital systems in Medicaid expansion states and nonexpansion states.

• Where Medicaid expansion matters: Small Illinois hospital expands while Missouri counterparts cut back

• Hospitals broaden scope of community-benefit work

• Health systems hope social initiatives will produce better health outcomes and lower costs

Jayne O'Donnell, health care policy reporter, USA Today

• O'Donnell compared health care being provided in neighboring states with and without Medicaid expansion.

• Medicaid turns 50 mired in controversy

• Most of those without Medicaid are the working poor

David Wahlberg, health reporter, Wisconsin State Journal

• Wahlberg focused on how well the organ transplant system is working in Wisconsin.

• Geographic disparities divide organ transplant world

• Chicago needs kidneys but sends many to other states

• Access to liver transplants unequal in Wisconsin, nation

• New kidney transplant system helps some but doesn't address wait time gap

• Interactive: For organ transplants, access differs across the US

• UW Hospital a leader in alternative to brain death organ donation

• Interactive: Organ donations after circulatory death

• Consent for organ donation strengthened through registries

• Doctors seek organ donation from deaths outside of hospitals

• Imminent death organ donation could help others, stir distrust

• New organ preservation technique could replace UW Solution

• Life after living organ donation not always bright

• Efforts aim to reimburse or pay living organ donors

• Good will helps people get kidneys through transplant chains

• Madison man's kidney donation continues circle of kindness

• Interactive: Record-setting transplant chain

 

2014 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Karen Brown, reporter and producer, New England Public Radio

• Brown studied how primary care physicians are being prepared for a future that puts them at the center of an increasingly complex health landscape.

• Free Clinics Still Needed To Fill Health Care Gaps

• The Path To Primary Care

• Raising The Stakes For Primary Care: Advocates Try To Make Field More Attractive

David Pittman, reporter, Politico

• Pittman compared state Medicaid models and the impact of innovations aimed at improving health care quality while lowering costs.

• State Medicaid ACOs Up but Struggles Mount

• Arkansas’ struggle with telemedicine mirrors the nation’s | PDF of project

• Medicaid agencies turn to 'big data' to tackle costs | PDF

• States fail to track Medicaid EHR payments | PDF

Sarah Gantz, staff writer, Baltimore Business Journal (now with The Philadelphia Inquirer)

• Gantz examined how Maryland’s unique all-payer system impacts the number, type, quality and financial condition of hospitals in Baltimore.

• Housing gave this man a chance to start over (Video)

• A Permanent Address: Why affordable housing can fix Baltimore's homeless crisis

• State of emergency: Why Maryland hospitals need to rethink the ER

• Fighting for breath: High asthma rates plague Baltimore's poor — and hospitals that treat them

• Why Maryland’s Medicare waiver matters to you

• Johns Hopkins and other hospitals are venturing into new frontiers

Michaela Gibson Morris, health care reporter, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

• Morris focused on the status of the primary care infrastructure in rural Mississippi and what it will take to bolster and maintain it in the future.

• Primary care challenges threaten health system stability

• Investing in primary care pays dividends

• Smithville doctor follows calling in rural medicine

• Investing in the next generation of primary care providers

• Mississippi needs the right programs in right places

• Young doctor finds rural practice rewarding

• Telehealth technology offers tools to connect with patients

• Physicians working to change financial equation

• Mount Pleasant nurtured community clinic

• Isolated Oregon town uses health district to create clinic

• Mississippi earns an ‘A’ in telehealth

Lola J. Butcher, independent journalist, Springfield, Mo.

• Butcher reported on the migration of cancer care from physician-owned clinics and community centers to hospital outpatient departments and how it affects patients, oncologists, hospitals and payers, especially Medicare.

• How Government Policies Have Increased the Cost of Cancer Care; Part 1: Medicare Pay Change Triggered Care Migration

• How Government Policies Have Increased the Cost of Cancer Care—Part II: 340B Drug Discounts Have Fueled the Migration of Cancer Care

• Unintended Consequences: How Government Policies Have Increased the Cost of Cancer Care, Part III: Emerging Payment Systems Fuel Cancer Care Consolidation

• Unintended Consequences: How Government Policies Have Increased the Cost of Cancer Care—Part IV: Oncology Goes to the Hospital: Good or Bad? The View from 4 Key Stakeholders

2013 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Alan Bavley, medical reporter, The Kansas City Star

• Bavley focused on the trend of large hospitals and health care groups absorbing independent medical practices and likely implications.

• Doctors Inc.: Medicine goes corporate as more physicians join hospital payrolls

Jeanne Erdmann, independent journalist, St. Louis

• Erdmann investigated the health outcomes of people who are either too rural or too poor to access the spectrum of care offered through genetic counseling.

• Molecular autopsies

• Is Your State Legislature Waiting for You to Get Cancer? A genetic predisposition can be either a death sentence or a guide to preventive care.

Noam Levey, national health care reporter, Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau

• Levey focused on how local-level policy choices impact community health system outcomes.

• What makes a community healthy?

• In healthcare, what makes Maine different?

• Hawaii's trailblazing healthcare underscores disparity

• Las Vegas tries new tactic to improve city's notorious healthcare

• In Arizona, swings in Medicaid access show program's impact

Rhiannon Meyers, reporter, Corpus Christi Caller-Times

• Meyers examined the scourge of diabetes in her region, cultural and policy influences, consequences and what will be required to change the course of the disease.

• Cost of Diabetes: Special Report | PDF of project

Lindy Washburn, senior writer, The Record/North Jersey Media Group

• Washburn studied what hospital ownership changes mean in terms of access, performance, costs and accountability, as well as how state policy changes will play into the mix.

• Patients caught in price war between Meadowlands Hospital and UnitedHealthCare

• High-stakes takeover bid for St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic fraught with politics

• Owners of for-profit North Jersey hospitals cash in on land beneath

• Owners of Meadowlands hospital cashing in

• As investors buy struggling hospitals, big change comes to New Jersey health care

• Hospital critics call for more disclosure

• A new playbook for hospitals: How investors pursue a financial turnaround

• Hospital owners line up support in high places

 

2012 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

John George, health care reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal

• George focused on the state of obstetrics services in the Philadelphia area.

• How Business Journal's "Labor Pains" series was born

• Part one of "Labor Pains"

• Part two of "Labor Pains"

• Part three of "Labor Pains"

Margot Sanger-Katz, health care correspondent, National Journal (now with The New York Times)

• Sanger-Katz produced a yearlong series of stories examining the growing pattern of hospital consolidation and its influence on health care costs and the future of health reform.

• The New Goliaths: The 2010 health law was designed to lower costs. Instead, by encouraging hospitals to merge, it could boost the price of care.

• Nothing to Smile About: The number of teeth in this country grows, even as the number of dentists shrinks. Guess who gets squeezed out.

• In Praise of Price-Fixing: Americans face a constant (and often Sisyphean) struggle against health care inflation. Maryland found an answer.

• The False Promise: Hospitals like Pittsburgh’s UPMC created enough jobs to end the recession. If they keep it up, they’ll wreck the economy.

Tammy Worth, independent journalist, Kansas City, Mo.

• Worth focused on health care delivery to uninsured undocumented immigrants.

• Undocumented and Uninsured – A Health Care Challenge

• Interview with Worth about the project

 

2011 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Yanick Rice Lamb, editor and writer, Heart & Soul Magazine

• Lamb examined delays that can leave poor and uninsured patients in hospitals for weeks or even months before they can be discharged to nursing homes or rehabilitation centers.

• Stuck in the Hospital: Some Uninsured Patients Wait Weeks and Months for Long-Term Care

• Project landing page

Marshall Allen, staff writer, Las Vegas Sun (now a reporter at ProPublica in New York)

• Allen explored whether transparency about hospital quality improves the quality of care for patients.

• How to put patients first: Rising above a fear of malpractice suits, pioneers in health care safety enact seven pillars that work 

• Public reporting of patient harm is a potent force

• First Do No Harm: Last year there wasn't a single fatal airline accident in the developed world. So why is the U.S. health care system still accidentally killing hundreds of thousands? The answer is a lack of transparency.

• The Sun Shines a Light on Health Care: CJR.org reports on the "Do No Harm" series.

Rosemary Hoban, reporter, North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC (now editor of North Carolina Health News)

• Hoban compared North Carolina's system for treating the mentally ill with those in place in other states and how cuts have affected the systems of care.

• What’s happening with housing for people with mental health disabilities in NC?

• What housing is available for people with mental health disabilities in NC?

• Tennessee finds a way home for many with mental health disabilities

• Roadblocks to housing for people with mental illness in NC

• How to create better housing for people with mental health disabilities