New Mexico In Depth’s recent coverage of the fallout from the state freezing Medicaid payments to behavioral health providers “may be instructive for newsrooms with similarly small staffs and limited resources,” a journalism publication says.
Columbia Journalism Review features NMID’s series, “The Medicaid Freeze,” and talks with NMID Executive Director Trip Jennings about how we covered the story in a new article:
“When In Depth published one of its first Medicaid stories, state government officials were quick to respond with a memo saying it was acting legally because of ‘credible allegations of fraud.’ Jennings said that wasn’t the story his organization was covering; In Depth New Mexico was mining much deeper. By July 11, In Depth was exploring what options state leaders had when they decided to halt funding to health providers, not whether they were legally permitted to do so.”
Columbia Journalism Review uses NMID’s experience to make suggestions to newsrooms on how to cover such stories: Be strategic with story choice and focus, harness expertise or develop it, ask the “dumb question,” partner on projects, and be people-focused.
Read the full article here.