NIHCM Selects New Cohort of Journalism Grantees

Washington, D.C., July 8, 2025 – The new cohort of NIHCM Journalism grantees is an impressive array of reporters from top national and local, digital and audio media outlets, and leading journalism education organizations. Selected from a competitive field of 147 applicants, the work of the 15 grantees promises to raise awareness and inform new policies and solutions on cutting-edge health care topics, such as rising costs and improving the quality of care.

“This year’s grantee work will reflect NIHCM’s refocused Journalism Grant program, which emphasizes the Foundation's core mission of increasing affordability for patients, reducing health care costs, and understanding how improving the management of health care can make a difference,” said Avik Roy, President and CEO of NIHCM.

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

Health Care Reporting

STAT - How Telehealth is Driving the Consumerization of Drugs
Telehealth marketing may have a significant impact on pharmaceutical use and costs. This project will investigate the shifting forces that shape prescribing behaviors on telehealth platforms and the effect on care and costs.

Fierce Healthcare - Inside the Nationwide Network of AI Assurance Labs
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming health care. This project will focus on the safe development, oversight, cost, and commercial viability of AI to provide insights into one of the most consequential private sector efforts to oversee AI use in health care.

Tradeoffs - Navigating New Pharmaceutical Frontiers
From GLP-1s to gene therapies, high-cost medications are increasingly driving the future of medicine. The Tradeoffs team will examine the questions of cost, access, and effectiveness posed by some of these new treatments.

Very Independent Pictures, The Conversation - AI in Health Care: The Promise, Possibilities, and Problems
Artificial intelligence may have the potential to revolutionize health care, while saving hundreds of billions of dollars per year. This podcast series will examine the potential shared savings among insurers, patients, providers, and hospitals; as well as the opportunities and risks related to the technology.

The Texas Tribune - Crisis in Care: The Workforce Exodus Shaping Texas Health Care
Workforce challenges are straining health systems in communities across the country. The Texas Tribune will explore the complex causes and impacts of Texas’s health care workforce atrophy since 2020, and shed light on possible solutions for the health care sector and state legislatures.

Power News Network - Spotlight on Health Series: Navigating the Rising Cost of Accessible and Quality Health Care
Increasing awareness about the importance of prevention is an essential part of improving health in underserved populations, while lowering costs. This radio series will focus on increasing knowledge about these practices in low-income, rural, and disadvantaged communities.

Bridge Michigan - Aging Well in Michigan: How to Lower Costs for Elder Care
Care costs for older adults are increasing nationwide. This project will examine why the costs of aging care are rising in Michigan to inform cost-cutting reforms, better regulations of care facilities, and offer a legislative blueprint to keep elder care costs from overwhelming families and state budgets.

APM Research Lab/MPR - Revealing Promising Opioid Interventions to Reduce Health Care Costs
Opioid use results in billions in health care costs, as well as devastating health outcomes. This project will combine extensive data analysis with investigative reporting to identify the geographical areas with the most success reducing opioid-related emergency room use and related health care costs.

Arkansas Center for Health Improvement - The Story of a Healthy Birthing Journey
Arkansas is seeking solutions to the state’s high maternal mortality rate—the third highest in the nation. This podcast series will provide evidence-based information for policymakers and the public on how to improve birth outcomes for mothers and infants in the state.

Nashville Public Radio - Health Care Hollow: The Demise of Hospitals in Rural Tennessee is Worsening
Rural communities are facing, and attempting to resolve, tough health care challenges. This solutions-focused series will report on health care issues, barriers to health care, and proven methods of providing more affordable care and improving health outcomes in Tennessee.

WBUR - AI in your doctor’s office
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way doctors and patients interact, from administrative practices to imaging. This series will explore AI’s potential to improve patient care and the potential risks.

Educating Journalists

Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) - The Business of Medtech: Miracle or Malpractice?
This new NIHCM/SABEW partnership is a workshop and webinar series created to increase the number of business journalists with the knowledge and skill to cover a broad range of rapidly changing topics related to technology, health care management, and affordability.

Association of Healthcare Journalists (AHCJ) - Follow the rising costs of health care: A webinar series that helps journalists report on the factors creating upward pressure on health care costs and prices
The AHCJ series of webinars will help journalists learn to report with authority and humanity on the factors creating upward pressure on health care costs and issues that impact access.

The Journalist’s Resource at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
The Shorenstein Center will produce a series of tip sheets, research roundups, webinars, and training materials to improve journalists’ ability to understand scientific and health policy research on topics that include health care management, hospital consolidation, and affordability.

The Gerontological Society of America - Journalists in Aging Fellows Program - The Economics of Aging: Impact on Care Costs
This unique project gives leading journalists access to top researchers working in aging to inform reporting on health, aging, and health care management in the private sector.