Association of Health Care Journalists' reporting fellowship application deadline is Nov. 9

The Association of Health Care Journalists is offering fellowships for reporting on health care performance to journalists who wish to pursue a significant year-long reporting project related to the U.S. health care system. It can be local or national in scope -- or a little of both, according to materials included with the announcement, which suggests a topic could be "an aspect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act playing out in your community or subject specialty, or the impact of particular evidence-based treatments on health outcomes, or an analysis of a health care organization’s performance, using public data sets."

Newsrooms for which the fellows work need to commit to publish or air their work. Freelancers will also need to have that commitment from a news source. Guidance is provided by AHCJ fellowship leaders through seminars on health care systems, conference calls and email consultations. The fellowship covers the cost of attending the seminars and conferences, and a project allowance is available. Application deadline: Nov. 9, 2012. (Read more)

Here are some examples of the work done by those awarded fellowships in 2012:

• The New Goliaths: The 2010 health law was designed to lower costs. Yet hospitals merging seems  to have upped the price of care.
  
• Nothing to Smile About: The number of dentists is shrinking. 
  
• In Praise of Price-Fixing:  Maryland may have found an answers to health care inflation.