Career Development: Fellowships, Internships, Training & Grants
AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance
Get help with your big 2023 reporting project!
Have you and your editors started planning a major project for 2023? We can help assist your effort through the AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance, which is supported by The Commonwealth Fund.
This calendar-year program allows journalists to pursue a significant reporting project related to the U.S. health care system. It can be local, regional or national in scope, or a mix.
Though not an exclusive requirement of your project proposal, this year’s review committee remains 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 became so apparent over the past year.
Fellows pursue the projects with the support of their newsrooms or arranged outlets, which commit to publish or air the work.
Guidance is provided by AHCJ fellowship leaders through customized seminars on health care systems, conference calls and email consultations. The fellowship covers the cost of attending the seminars and AHCJ conferences, and a $4,000 project allowance is available to defray the cost of field reporting, health data analysis and other project-related research. In addition, each fellow will receive a $2,500 fellowship award upon the successful completion of the project.
The application deadline is January 19, 2023 at 1 p.m. ET, Noon. CT, 10 a.m. PT
For 2023, the first meeting is planned as either an in-person meeting in New York or as a virtual seminar to be held in January. The second seminar will take place at Health Journalism 2023, with anticipated dates in early March. The third seminar is due for later in the year in New York. We anticipate the first half of the year being spent on research and remote interviews, with the second half of the year allowing travel to sites needed to complete your reporting.
See details about applying for the fellowship.
Questions? Contact Susan Cunningham, cunninghamsu@missouri.edu or 573-882-2203.
2022 fellows
(Click names to see their projects.)
Theodore Alcorn, independent journalist
Politics trumps health in state’s response to alcohol crisis
- 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
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
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: 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
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)
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
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
- Will cancer centers remain committed to improving equity in the long term?
Kristen Schorsch, reporter, WBEZ, Chicago Public Media (@kschorsch)
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
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.
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
- 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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
Push pause on Arkansas's Medicaid work requirement, federal oversight panel says
Arkansas’s health insurance rates remain low, compared to neighbors
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
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.
When A Mother Dies: Calista’s family struggles to understand her death
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
Overdose epidemic builds new empathy for people with addiction
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
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 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.
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:
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 fellowsRead 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.
Falling Through the Gaps; Community Mental Health Care Continues to Be Vulnerable
Despite Offerings, Nursing Home Beds and Funds Still Lacking
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?
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.
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.
David Wahlberg, health reporter, Wisconsin State Journal
Wahlberg focused on how well the organ transplant system is working in Wisconsin.
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
Doctors seek organ donation from deaths outside of hospitals
Imminent death organ donation could help others, stir distrust
Good will helps people get kidneys through transplant chains
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.
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.
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.
A Permanent Address: Why affordable housing can fix Baltimore's homeless crisis | PDF
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
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.
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 fellowsRead 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.
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.
Las Vegas tries new tactic to improve city's notorious healthcare
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.
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
As investors buy struggling hospitals, big change comes to New Jersey health care
A new playbook for hospitals: How investors pursue a financial turnaround
2012 fellowsRead 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.
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.
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
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
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
How to create better housing for people with mental health disabilities
