Health Coverage Fellowship

The Health Coverage Fellowship is designed to help journalists do an even better job covering critical health issues. The program is newly hosted by the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

About the fellowship

Each year thirteen journalists—from print, broadcast, and online news outlets as well as freelancers—are selected for an intensive nine days and nights of training in Boston. 

Over the course of the fellowship, these journalists hear from dozens of health officials, practitioners, researchers, and patients on issues such as mental health, pandemics, breakthrough treatments, climate-related health impacts, healthcare disparities, women’s health, and aging. And they get to watch first-hand how the system works, whether by walking the streets at night with doctors who treat the homeless or visiting labs that make stem cells and vaccines.

Journalists leave the fellowship with a notebook full of story ideas, a year’s worth of mentoring by veteran health journalist and fellowship director Larry Tye, and a new community of like-minded journalists.

What sets the fellowship apart

Most journalism fellowship programs take seasoned journalists away from their jobs for a full year, require employers to pay part of the cost, and do little practical training. The residential part of the Health Coverage Fellowship lasts just nine days, the program requires no financial contribution from media outlets, and the training ensures that reporters and editors come back with a list of story ideas and an address book full of new sources.

The 2026 fellows

The 2026 fellows are Scott Hensley from NPR, Hannah Kaufman of The Morning Sentinel/Maine Trust for Local News, Anuradha Mascarenhas from Indian Express, Sarah Neville of the Financial Times, Sarah Owermohle from CNN, Daniel Payne of STAT, Maggie Penman from the Washington Post, Sarah Rahal of the Boston Globe, Amanda Seitz from KFF Health News, Allen Siegler of Mississippi Today, Sheryl Gay Stolberg from the New York Times, Cris Villalonga-Vivoni of Hearst Media/CT Insider, and Nicole Villalpando from the Austin American-Statesman.

The fellowship’s impact on health journalism

Founded in 2002 by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Health Coverage Fellowship has trained more than 275 leading health journalists from across the nation.

Our supporters

The 2026 program is made possible thanks to generous support from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, Bower Foundation in Mississippi, Connecticut Health Foundation, Fledgling Fund, KFF, Maine Health Access Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and, in Texas, the Episcopal Health Foundation, the H.E. Butt Foundation, Methodist Healthcare Ministries, and St. David’s Foundation.

How to apply

We have selected the fellows for the 2026 Health Coverage Fellowship program.

Check back later this year to apply for 2027.

Learn more

To get a better sense of the fellowship, have a look at our 2025 schedule.

Want to learn more about the fellowship or how to support its work? Contact Larry Tye at larrytye@gmail.com.