Covering Health Issues 6.0, coming soon to a mailbox near you*
Filed under: Health care reform, Health journalism, Member news, Tools
*Assuming you’re an AHCJ member. If you aren’t a member, then keep in mind that a free copy of each revision of the sourcebook is one of many perks you’ll gain by joining.
Thanks to a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Alliance for Health Reform has released the sixth edition of its “Covering Health Issues” sourcebook. Since the fifth edition, released in 2009, editors have added loads of new content, particularly in areas related to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The free online edition also comes with links to local stories that exemplify sourcebook-inspired reporting. If you can’t wait for your hard copy to arrive, you can also get the full book in PDF format.
As always, the book promises “fast facts, background, tips for reporters, story ideas and experts with contact information,” as well as “an extensive glossary, ideas and examples for TV and radio reporters, and links to polls on health issues.”
For tips on how to take advantage of this resource, scope out this video, presented by AHCJ member and NPR health reporter Julie Rovner.
Health care reform implementation glossary debuts
Filed under: Health care reform, Health journalism, Tools
HealthReformGPS, the George Washington University and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project aimed at making health reform implementation easier to understand, has come out with a glossary of more than 200 key reform terms.
It keeps each entry brief while still covering general ideas, such as “Patient Protections,” as well as more specific ones, such as “Urban Indian” and “Culturally and linguistically appropriate and competent services.” All of this makes it perfect for bookmarking, or for a quick refresher. Take a minute to scan the list and I’m sure you’ll stumble across at least a couple entries that make you say, “Oh, so that’s what that really means.” Chances are, you’ll also come away with a story idea or two to boot.
Understanding the administrative side of implementation
Coverage of health care reform implementation has generally focused on the issues and effects of the roll-out, rather than the arcane governmental mechanisms involved. It makes sense, of course, as “here’s how you can now get coverage despite your pre-existing condition” is significantly more relevant to most readers than “23 states miss federal 90-day deadline for creation of high-risk pools, partly because already established pools don’t always conform to reform requirements, and partly because it’s too much hassle and they’d rather let the feds do it for them.”
Service-oriented as it may be, this focus has led to a few gaps in my understanding of the administrative moving parts involved in implementation. Which is why the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s guide to state and federal roles in the implementation of health care reform is such a handy document. It’s worth a quick scan, if only to give all those implementation stories a little context. It’s got everything from “how informal rulemaking becomes law” (hint: it involves both “notice” and “comment”), to the aforementioned business about why some states ceded control of their high-risk pools to the federal government. And it’s only four pages long.
Sourcebook expands ideas for local reporting
The latest version of the Covering Health Issues sourcebook has been updated with even more examples of how reporters have used it for local stories. For example, the section on Mental Health and Substance Abuse links to nine related stories and four additional related resources. Those stories included cuts to Tennessee’s mental health agency, a profile of aMichigan troupe that blends acting and therapy and possible changes to mental health care for inmates in California’s Ventura County.
It’s a handy place to check when you’re looking for examples of how to localize certain topics, especially since you’ll also be to pull relevant facts and background from the accompanying chapter of the sourcebook.
The print version of the sourcebook was distributed to AHCJ members last year.
Reporters use county rankings for analysis
Filed under: Health data, Public health, Public records, Studies, Tools
On Feb. 17, rankings of the relative health of counties in each American state were released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin. The rankings used data from 13 distinct (mostly federal) sources, including the National Center for Health Statistics, the Census Bureau and the Dartmouth Atlas. With that data, researchers computed eight separate composite scores, which were then weighted to produce one overall score. The ratings are navigated by clicking through a national map to the state and county level. Enough clicks will even bring you to the raw data itself. The state only compares counties, not states, because data collection varies from state to state and isn’t always standardized.
It’s a combination of data, analysis and an intuitive interface, and journalists have been quick to localize the story. Many reporters reached beyond the easy numbers (”our county is 67th!”) to use the system for deeper stories.
For example, Robin Erb of the Detroit Free Press dissected the ratings process and how individual factors and disparities played into them before launching into the standard state breakdown.
Writing for Health News Florida, David Gulliver took a broader state view and considered how various socioeconomic factors played into the rankings of Florida counties. Gulliver’s analysis:
The strong-performing coastal counties, like Collier, St. John’s Sarasota, Charlotte, Palm Beach and Broward, all benefit from having heavy concentrations of retirees who have guaranteed health care access via Medicare. …
[Dr. Kevin Sherin, director of public health for Orange County] said that in Florida’s tourism and service industries, workers tend to be transient and less likely to have insurance or consistent primary care.
He noted the low-ranked counties were some of the poorest in Florida, like Union and Bradford in the rural north, and Glades and Okeechobee, with heavy populations of migrant workers. Those counties also tend to have more people who speak only Spanish, Creole or other languages.
Gulliver localized the story on a county level for his Sarasota Health News site.
In USA Today, Mary Brophy Marcus took the national view and looked for broad trends and generalizations. Marcus’ story was accompanied by a map by Frank Pompa highlighting each state’s healthiest and least healthy counties.
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