In a time when local newsrooms are disappearing at an alarming rate, leaving large parts of the U.S. under-reported, KFF Health News’ Rural Health Desk is working to expand and deepen coverage of some of the country’s smallest and most remote communities.
“The need for quality rural journalism has never been greater,” said David Rousseau, publisher and executive director of KFF Health News, who launched the rural effort in 2022. KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, created the rural news effort to address critical gaps in coverage and elevate the unique challenges rural communities face.
“A lot of rural hospitals are closing. People have to drive long distances, and in rural America, people rely more on public programs like Medicaid and Medicare than other parts of the country. Their stories matter,” explained Rousseau.
Since its launch, the Rural Health Desk has produced 400 articles and podcast episodes in English and Spanish, covering a wide range of healthcare issues affecting rural populations. It has also worked closely with other newsrooms to extend its impact.
“I think we’re going to live through an era of a lot of proposed change and some actual change in how government programs support health care and rural Americans. Rural areas don’t often have local news organizations that can cover these issues, so we’re happy to cover them,” said Rousseau. “We’ve worked closely with local newsrooms, providing reporting that they can localize or publish directly. We’re helping them cover critical rural health issues even as many face resource challenges.”
In March, they rolled out a new investigative series, “Dead Zone,” produced by KFF’s rural reporting team in collaboration with Gray Media’s InvestigateTV. The project looks at the intersection of broadband connectivity across the country and how it overlaps with health disparities. Their reporting revealed nearly 3 million people live in areas with extreme shortages of providers and extreme broadband connectivity deserts — despite billions of dollars invested in infrastructure.
“We're making this data particularly useful for local, regional and state-level news outlets by providing a tier of localization,” said Nathan Payne, regional editor at KFF Health News, who oversees the Rural Health Desk. “We’ll also host a Q&A session for local newsrooms to help them use the data for their reporting.”
Mission-aligned support
The Rural Health Desk aligns with KFF Health News’ broader mission to fill reporting gaps in both local and national media. To achieve this, KFF makes all its reporting freely available for other news organizations to publish. Rousseau said this commitment ties into the Kaiser Family Foundation’s mission to provide accessible health reporting, helping communities assess the resources and policies needed for better health outcomes.
“We distribute all of our stories for free under a Creative Commons license,” Rousseau explained. “Last year alone, over 2,100 media partners published our stories.” Rousseau noted that the impact has been tangible. Some stories have led to new legislation, helped hospitals remain open and influenced healthcare policies.
Rousseau credits the support of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust in setting up focused reporting. “We had an interest in doing more reporting on rural health, and we were able to launch in 2022 because they had an interest in rural health care,” explained Rousseau. The trust contributed a $3.1 million grant in 2022 to set up the rural desk, and they just announced a renewal of $4.7 million over the next three years.
Walter Panzirer, a trustee of the Helmsley Trust and the grandson of Leona Helmsley, had worked as a medic first in Oakland, California, and then in rural South Dakota. Panzirer told E&P that the disparity and lack of resources he saw in the rural communities he worked in inspired him to find ways to bring more awareness to the issues.
“In rural areas, women would have to drive sometimes six hours to access digital mammography services. There are just real gaps in equipment and needed services. We saw that your ZIP code really could determine your health outcomes, so we wanted to level up and address that.”
When Panzirer became a trustee of the Foundation, he advocated for a focus on rural health and saw a parallel need to support rural journalism.
“Most people don’t recognize that rural America is nearly 20% of the U.S. population. Given all the cuts to newsrooms, their issues are very much underreported. One important part of supporting KFF is that these stories are carried nationally. So, this is giving voice to folks, making sure that they are elevating what’s happening in local communities, and their work is raising the profile of these issues nationally.”
A commitment to field reporting
Unlike many national news organizations that cover rural America from a distance, KFF Health News has committed to having its reporters in the field where the impact of health policy is being felt. Payne said they accomplish this by having their team of six staffers based in various parts of the country while also working with knowledgeable freelancers and local newsrooms.
“We aren’t just writing about people in rural America. We are writing for them,” Payne said. “As a national news organization, to have this investment out on the ground — sending our reporters where people are impacted, where our sources are living and experiencing how the healthcare system reaches them — that's powerful.”
KFF Health News reporters have filed stories from dozens of datelines, including Fort Dodge, Iowa; Clarksville, Tennessee; Sandpoint, Idaho; and Winnemucca, Nevada. “We’re sending people on the ground to knock on doors, sit in living rooms, look at medical bills, and see how care is delivered,” Payne added.
Journalists have reported on maternal health challenges, access to emergency medical services, hospital closures and disparities in mental health care. This extensive coverage is made possible by a dedicated team of staff reporters, freelancers and collaborative partners, including NPR and local public radio stations, who work together to ensure that rural voices are heard nationally.
Payne explained the success of the Rural Health Desk comes from the diverse skills of the team working on it.
“The people on this team have an incredible range of expertise — from data journalists who can sift through complex datasets to reporters who are deeply embedded in their regions and understand the nuances of their communities,” he said, adding some on the team are highly skilled radio reporters and photographers. “That mix allows us to tell richer, more impactful stories.”
KFF’s spirit of internal collaboration is also a key strength for the Rural Health Desk. “This has been embraced as a newsroom-wide effort. Reporters assigned to other teams often surface rural health issues in their work, and we collaborate to ensure those stories get the depth and sourcing they need,” Payne said.
Award-winning rural health reporting with others
Payne said the spirit of collaboration has been a force multiplier for the rural team.
The dedication and rigor of KFF Health News’ rural coverage have earned national recognition. KFF’s Lauren Sausser won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for reporting on Black maternal health in collaboration with The 19th. Their “Buy and Bust” investigation into rural hospital acquisitions, led by Sarah Jane Tribble and Payne, was a finalist for the Online Journalism Association’s Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award.
KFF Health News actively collaborates with a variety of partners to expand the reach and impact of its Rural News Desk. These partnerships include national and regional media outlets, nonprofit journalism organizations and local newsrooms.
“We work closely with partners like NPR, The New York Times and local public radio stations to ensure that our reporting reaches the communities that need it most,” Rousseau said. “Our collaborations allow us to amplify rural health stories that might otherwise go unheard.”
Because many rural communities rely on radio and television rather than digital news, KFF Health News has strengthened its partnerships with broadcast media. Its long-standing collaboration with NPR ensures that rural stories reach a national audience via public radio. Since November 2023, a partnership with Public News Service has helped distribute stories to over 10,000 media outlets, including rural commercial radio stations. KFF’s partnership with Gray Media has expanded the reach of rural health stories to 113 television markets, many of which align with regions facing significant healthcare access challenges.
A partnership with the Colorado News Collaborative on medical debt helped expose unfair hospital billing practices, leading to legislative changes. “That project played a big role in legislation that barred hospitals from suing patients and forced changes in billing practices,” Rousseau said.
The newsroom also provides training and resources for local journalists. “We’ve done a number of trainings, including around the opioid settlement,” Rousseau said. “Our reporter, Aneri Pattani, has done the best reporting in the nation on where the opioid settlement dollars are going — or not going. We’ve trained local newsrooms to do their own versions of these stories based on her work.”
Looking ahead, KFF Health News plans to expand its collaborations with local newsrooms. “We’re eager to do more projects where journalists can localize national data and tell stories that truly resonate in their communities,” Rousseau said. “Collaboration is in our DNA. We believe that by working together, we can strengthen journalism and better serve rural America.”
Diane Sylvester is an award-winning 30-year multimedia news veteran. She works as a reporter, editor, and newsroom strategist. She can be reached at diane.povcreative@gmail.com
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