As Tradeoffs’ lead health policy reporter, Evans dissects how legislation and economics shape care delivery. Her work sits at the crossroads of:
“The best health journalism doesn’t just explain the system – it reveals who’s being failed by it.” – Melanie Evans, 2025 Association of Health Care Journalists Keynote
Melanie Evans has carved a niche as a meticulous health policy journalist, blending data-driven analysis with human-centered storytelling. Over her 25-year career, she’s become a trusted voice on Medicare reimbursement models, hospital economics, and the intersection of politics and public health.
This 2024 investigation revealed how Medicare’s facility fee system charges patients up to 300% more for identical procedures at hospital-owned clinics versus independent practices. Evans combined CMS claims data with patient narratives from Iowa’s shuttered critical access hospitals, demonstrating how payment reforms could save taxpayers $18B annually while threatening rural care access. The piece became required reading for Senate Health Committee staff during 2025 Medicare negotiations.
Evans’ 2025 profile of the controversial HHS Secretary blended policy analysis with political reporting, tracking how Kennedy’s early moves to slash CDC funding aligned with his decades-long vaccine skepticism. She interviewed 43 state epidemiologists who described crumbling disease surveillance systems, punctuated by a blockquote from a Louisiana public health director: “We’re fighting measles outbreaks with fax machines and goodwill.”
This 2024 WSJ investigation analyzed compliance with federal price disclosure rules, finding only 12% of hospitals fully met requirements. Evans’ team scraped 8TB of hospital chargemaster data to create the first searchable database of procedure costs, revealing that a routine blood test ranged from $11 to $987 across Manhattan hospitals.
Evans prioritizes stories demonstrating tangible impacts of policy changes on underserved communities. A successful 2025 pitch from a Montana telehealth startup combined Medicaid reimbursement data with patient outcome metrics, resulting in a 3,800-word feature on frontier state care models. Avoid theoretical economic models without real-world validation.
Her coverage of Kennedy’s HHS tenure consistently links cabinet-level decisions to clinic-level consequences. A compelling pitch might explore how state health departments are adapting to reduced federal funding, emphasizing on-the-ground staffing changes or service reductions.
Evans’ radar perks up for analyses of CMS data revealing geographic or demographic disparities. The 2024 series on Native American dialysis access succeeded by pairing reservation travel distance stats with personal narratives from Navajo Nation patients.
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Health, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
