NIHCM Awards $500,000 to New Cohort of Journalism Grantees, Focusing on Costs, Consolidation, Chronic Disease Management, and More.

Washington, DC - February 24, 2026 – NIHCM today announced the 2025-2026 cohort of NIHCM Journalism Grantees, including journalists from top national and local, digital and audio media outlets, and leading journalism education organizations. Selected from a highly competitive pool of nearly 250 applicants, these 19 grantees promise to raise awareness on issues of rising health care costs, affordability, quality and access, and inform new policies and strategies through their work. 

“NIHCM’s Journalism Grants play an important role in educating journalists on the evolving health care landscape and in supporting specific stories that might not otherwise be told. We are pleased to support the work of this outstanding group of grantees. Their insights will help the public, policymakers, health plans, and health systems make more informed decisions on pressing health care issues,” said Andrew Dreyfus, President and CEO of NIHCM.

The NIHCM Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving health care through evidence and collaboration.

2025 - 2026 Grantees:

Health Care Reporting

Cascadia Daily News - The Price of Health Care Consolidation in Whatcom County
This project examines health care consolidation in Whatcom County, Washington, where one health system has a dominant position over a significant share of medical services. Residents have experienced fewer options, longer wait times, and changing insurance offerings. This project will inform the public, leaders, and policymakers about the effects of health care consolidation on health care access, costs, and equity. 

Health Affairs Publishing  - Unpacking the Equity Implications of HR 1 (The One Big Beautiful Bill Act)
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR 1) is expected to bring significant changes to health policy, impacting consumers, communities, and state and local policymakers. This project will research and report on how various populations and communities are preparing for the full implementation of HR 1, focusing on its effects on Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces.

PBS News Hour - The Price We Pay for GLP-1s
The rapid rise of GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs has brought both promise and significant costs. As demand grows and the market continues to evolve, this series will examine the GLP-1 drug landscape, including its benefits, potential side effects, ongoing shortages, the role of compounding pharmacies, and the financial implications for the health care system.

Power News Radio Network - Managing Chronic Disease Health Care Options, Pharmaceuticals and Affordability
Chronic disease rates continue to rise across the country. This project aims to enhance understanding of chronic diseases, particularly for individuals in disadvantaged and marginalized communities, and help them make informed health decisions. This series will highlight best practices for preventing and managing common chronic diseases, while also exploring the associated treatments and costs.

Bridge Michigan - Unraveling Medical Bills in Michigan
Bridge Michigan will explain changes in Michigan’s health care system and break down the economics, including on hospital consolidation, medical bills, medical waste, Medicaid funding, private equity investments, and food as medicine programs. This multi-part, data-driven series will help residents understand rising health care costs and efforts to make care more efficient and affordable.

WHYY News and The Pulse - Rebuilding Care — Confronting the Perfect Storm of Diabetes, Obesity, and Lack of Access
America’s health system is nearing a breaking point in managing chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity—conditions that drive significant health care spending. WHYY News will examine the factors contributing to the failures in chronic disease care, including health care financing, delivery, and access. The project will also explore how policy innovation, partnerships, and coordinated care can strengthen chronic care for the future, making it more affordable and equitable.

Katti Gray - Freelance, MLK50 - Beyond the Doctor’s Office: How Community Health Coaches Are Improving Disease Outcomes (And What it Means for Patients and Health Systems)
Amid a persistent shortage of clinicians, certified community health coaches have emerged as a vital resource and supplement to short-staffed, overburdened health systems, especially those serving low-income communities with disproportionate levels of illness. This project will spotlight the value of this growing workforce and share solutions-focused stories that inform patients,  policymakers, legislators, medical insurers, and other stakeholders about how these coaches are improving patient outcomes and lowering costs for health systems.

Adaira Landry - Freelance, Forbes Magazine - Why Early Cancer Detection Lags: Mapping Scientific, Structural, and Social Barriers to Progress
Cancer incidence is rising among younger adults, yet early cancer detection strategies have not kept pace with the shifting epidemiology. While screening science has produced meaningful advances for certain cancers, major gaps remain in access, awareness, implementation, and innovation. This project will examine why promising detection tools, risk models, and preventive strategies are not reaching patients equitably or quickly enough. It will analyze systemic barriers across public education, environmental and agricultural risk exposures, research funding priorities, regulatory pathways, and technological translation — identifying where progress slows between discovery and delivery.

HealthDay - Is There A Doctor In The House? The U.S. Family Medicine Crisis.
Many Americans struggle to access primary care, often delaying treatment until a costly emergency room visit becomes necessary. This reporting series will explore the factors contributing to this breakdown in primary care delivery, including workforce shortages and care models, and examine how this gap in care contributes to rising health care costs.

MindSite News - Beyond Burnout: Expanding and Reshaping the Mental Health Workforce
One third of the US population resides in a mental health professional shortage area. This multi-part reporting project will investigate the mental health workforce crisis, examining its causes, impacts and potential solutions, while offering actionable insights for policymakers and other key stakeholders.

Elaine Grant, Freelance - The Emergency Response Crisis: The worker shortage ailing America’s emergency medical response system
A shortage of skilled workers, combined with additional stressors, is impacting America’s emergency medical response system, especially for the millions of individuals living in rural areas. This project will produce a series of digital and audio stories highlighting the significant ways this crisis impacts patients and emergency medical responders alike.  It will also highlight the strength of emergency medical services by geography, and the challenges of maintaining an emergency response workforce.

STAT - Paying for AI: How clinical algorithms will pull at health care’s purse strings
The use of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered clinical tools is increasing, but evidence on their impact on patients' long term health and cost of care remains limited. As the number of AI devices grows, lawmakers and regulators face industry pressure to ease the reimbursement process, while companies seek to increase adoption of their tools. This reporting series will examine the implications of clinical AI on patient care and the affordability of health care, informing the adoption of AI across the health care system.

The Advocate - Louisiana at Heavy Risk: A Year-Long Reporting Project on the State’s Obesity Crisis
Louisiana’s obesity rate has climbed to nearly 40%, impacting chronic disease rates and increasing health care costs. This project will explore the obesity epidemic across the lifespan, the rising costs of healthy food and weight-loss medications, and chronic conditions associated with excess body weight, while highlighting evidence-based solutions and policy responses statewide.

Tradeoffs - Can This Obscure Policy Protect People from Medical Debt? 
As health care costs rise and the safety net shrinks, Americans are at increasing risk for crushing medical debt. This project will provide first-of-its-kind reporting on the impact of state laws requiring hospitals to automatically provide eligible patients with free or discounted care, and what policymakers should consider about how to make charity care easier for consumers to access.

Education

Association of Health Care Journalists - AI and patient safety: Keeping journalists up to date on this dynamic topic
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve health care delivery but may also impact costs, safety and access. Yet many journalists lack the time and resources to explore this dynamic topic, creating a gap in expertise when clinicians, policymakers and the public need informed analysis. This project will support the creation of an AHCJ resource page for journalists that will explore how AI is transforming health care, including its promise to improve efficiency and outcomes, as well as potential risks to patient safety and increasing costs. Resources will be updated monthly and include published articles, tips sheets, data dives, live webinars and on-demand virtual trainings. 

Gerontological Society of America - Journalists in Aging Fellows Program
By 2030, one-fifth of the country’s population will be 65+ and the effects of this demographic shift have important social, economic, and health implications. The Journalists in Aging Fellowship Program educates reporters about aging and helps them disseminate accurate, fact-based information. This grant supports two reporters participating in the fellowship program, advancing reporting projects related to health care delivery, affordability, and chronic disease management.

The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing - American Healthcare: It’s becoming less affordable, but will AI help improve the outcomes?
The project will explore the widening gap in affordable health care and the role of AI in medicine, including impacts on cost and outcomes, while examining how Federal policy changes are impacting patients, hospitals, and other health care providers. Through two sessions at the 2026 SABEW Conference and two webinars for a group of health care fellows, this partnership aims to improve journalists’ understanding of these critical health areas.

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - 2026 Health Coverage Fellowship for Journalists
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - Health Coverage Fellowship for Journalists will continue to enhance the media’s reporting on health care.

USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism - Advancing Health System Improvements Through Data and Accountability Journalism
Meaningful accountability in health care reporting relies on a strong foundation of data-driven analysis and human stories that bring policy to life. This Data Fellowship provides essential training for journalists and newsrooms to produce major explanatory and investigative reporting on key issues in the US health care system. The NIHCM-supported cohort will focus on affordability, health care delivery, and chronic disease management.