Joseph Burns
Pia Christensen
Falmouth, MA, United States
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Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
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Past articles by Joseph:
COVID relief bill bans some surprise medical bills, but not all
Leaders of both political parties in the U.S. House and Senate reached agreement Sunday to pass a $900 billion bill to stimulate the economy. That bill also included language supporting a long-soug… → Read More
New resources for covering inequities in insurance, care during pandemic
Valerie Montgomery Rice, M.D., is afraid of needles. Nevertheless, she agreed to receive her coronavirus vaccine on national television last Friday, along with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, M.D. Rice, who is… → Read More
SCOTUS ruling allows states to regulate what PBMs pay pharmacists
States seeking to regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) won an important victory on Thursday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0, rejecting a challenge to a law the state of Arkansas passed i… → Read More
Experts have advice for the last-minute Medicare Advantage shoppers among your audience
Watching the TV ads during the evening news, you would think Medicare Advantage plans were the greatest health insurance bargain ever invented. Consumers should not be fooled, however. It’s true th… → Read More
During open enrollment, consumers will need help recognizing plans that comply with the Affordable Care Act
Journalists covering open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act this year will need to separate fact from fiction about the law and about coverage for pre-existing conditions. As we saw on Tuesday… → Read More
Provider groups closely monitor Supreme Court case on pharmacy benefit managers
The U.S. Supreme Court this month heard oral arguments in the case of Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association. At issue is the right of states to regulate pharmacy benefit management… → Read More
What Missouri, Oklahoma teach us about state efforts to expand Medicaid eligibility
Missouri voters in August approved a ballot measure that would expand Medicaid eligibility to include healthy adults, beginning July 1, 2021. According to reporting at NPR by Alex Smith, 53.25% of … → Read More
Employers and insurers paid hospitals 247% more than Medicare rates, new study shows
Research released today shows that from 2016 through 2018, self-insured employers and commercial health insurers in 49 states and the District of Columbia paid 247% more, on average, than what the … → Read More
Report card shows erosion of health insurance coverage in the states
The coronavirus has certainly pushed the health care system into a crisis. Still, even before the pandemic began earlier this year, health insurance coverage in the states already was being eroded … → Read More
Wide variations in health care providers’ charges raise questions about the right rate
Early last month, a report from the Pioneer Institute in Boston showed that Massachusetts consumers could have saved $22 million in 2015 if they got health care from lower-cost providers instead of… → Read More
Report shows wide variation in what insurers pay providers versus what Medicare would have paid
During the coronavirus pandemic, any number of good news stories seem to get little or no coverage because most health care journalists are busy covering COVID-19. One such case in point was a repo… → Read More
N.C. journalist goes to Europe for lessons about opioid crisis
Last year, Taylor Knopf, a health care journalist at North Carolina Health News, spent more than a week out of a vacation to report on how France and Switzerland have been able to do what the healt… → Read More
As death rates rise, nursing and LTC facilities face critical testing, PPE challenges
Six months after the first nursing home residents died of the novel coronavirus, many nursing homes and long-term care facilities continue to face a shortage of personal protective equipment, test … → Read More
Pulitzer finalists explain how to use court documents to cover hospitals’ predatory billing practices
Court documents are among the best sources for journalists covering the aggressive tactics tht hospitals and health systems use when seeking payment from patients who owe them money. This advice co… → Read More
Brenner leaves UnitedHealth Group to return to primary care
One of the nation’s most innovative physicians is leaving UnitedHealth Group to start a primary care practice in New Jersey. Jeffrey Brenner, M.D, is returning to primary care after more than three… → Read More
Journalist digs through data sources to show how deal changed Montana’s insurance market
Covering health insurance in a less-populated state can be a significant challenge for journalists because most often, there’s not enough enrollment data to support robust reporting on trends that … → Read More
Short-term, limited-duration health plans assailed in Congressional Democrats’ report
Short-term, limited-duration insurance plans threaten the health and financial well-being of American families, according to a recent staff report from Congressional Democrats on the Committee on E… → Read More
Even in a pandemic, it’s important to keep the price transparency issue in perspective
A federal judge last month ruled against the American Hospital Association and other hospital groups in their lawsuit against the Trump administration’s plan to require hospitals to publish the pri… → Read More
Time to track how the pandemic is hurting health care provider finances
While the death of more than 120,000 Americans related to the novel coronavirus is the most important story, the economic impact of the pandemic on hospitals and physicians is another significant s… → Read More
Webcast to highlight how coronavirus has hit Native American tribes
The novel coronavirus has affected underserved communities and people of color at disproportionately high rates, including taking an extraordinary toll among Native Americans as measured in rates o… → Read More