The Health Coverage Fellowship
Enhancing health journalist coverage of critical healthcare issues in Mississippi
The Health Coverage Fellowship is designed to help newspaper, radio, television, and online reporters and editors do a better job covering critical health care issues. Each year twelve journalists are selected from across the country for an intensive nine days and nights of training.
Since 2013, the Bower Foundation has supported a Mississippi health reporter or editor to attend the fellowship each year.
The fellowship focuses on issues ranging from public health and mental health to covering the uninsured, controlling skyrocketing costs, and upgrading quality. More than 80 speakers participate each year, including top health officials, policy experts, and researchers. The program also brings its journalists into the field to watch first-hand how the system works, from walking the streets at night with mental health case workers to riding in a Medflight helicopter.
The fellowship is housed at Babson College’s Center for Executive Education in Wellesley, and is sponsored by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation in collaboration with other Foundations. The fellowship is directed by Larry Tye, a former Nieman fellow who covered health and the environment for 15 years at the Boston Globe and has written seven books.
The program continues after fellows return to their stations and papers. For the following year, fellows attend half-day follow-up sessions and continue to consult with Tye on story ideas, source suggestions, and general mentoring.