Insights

When it comes to enterprise reporting, "community engagement" is the order of the day. But how do reporters find the time for such work in overstretched newsrooms? Three journalists known for their work in this arena recently shared what they've learned with other reporters.

Medicare made more than $583 billion in payments in 2013. But, for one of the fastest rising areas of Medicare spending, the agency has no way of knowing whether all that money was spent wisely.

The journalists, chosen from a competitive field, are taking part in intensive workshops and then spending six months working on ambitious health journalism projects with support from USC Annenberg.

An innovative program allows elderly residents to remain in their own homes, rather than in a nursing home. At AltaMed's El Monte clinic, a 14-member interdisciplinary team coordinates each senior patient’s care, and vulnerable seniors are kept as busy and engaged as possible.

Take a look at this week's roundup of job, fellowship and award opportunities.

“Health care is what happens when things go wrong,” Dr. Anthony Iton says. “Health care doesn’t actually make you healthy — it prevents you from deteriorating rapidly.” The broader forces that really shape health, he argues, are what journalists and policymakers should really be focusing on.

The 2015 California Health Journalism Fellowship kicked off with a wide-ranging conversation between Gerald Kominski of UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research and Anna Gorman of Kaiser Health News on the past and future of health reform.

The practice of physicians "self-referring" patients to facilities in which they or their families have a financial stake has dramatically increased in some specialties. The practice increases health costs for procedures and tests that are of questionable benefit to patients.

Known as bodega clinics or storefront clinics — these doctors' offices are incredibly popular in Orange County's Latino neighborhoods. But public health officials harbor a number of concerns about such "bodega" clinics.