James Cohn
Reuters received a gold award worth $5,000 on Wednesday for his report on US health insurers dropping patients after they were diagnosed with breast cancer.
The four-month investigation, based on reporting from Lewis Krauskopf and Washington-based reporter Murray Waas, revealed that a giant health insurer had targeted policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer for aggressive investigations and cancelled some policies. An exhaustive study of records, hearings and federal data, as well as dozens of interviews with experts, officials and patients led to the Murray Waas story.
“We published the story in April and the reaction was swift,” said Claudia Parsons, deputy editor for enterprise reporting in the Americas. “The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats urged insurers to end the policy known as rescission immediately.”
Within days, one insurer announced it would stop dropping coverage for all customers after they get sick. The very next day, another followed suit, as would most of the health insurance industry in the following days.