Annie Waldman

Reporter

Photo of Annie Waldman

Annie Waldman is a reporter at ProPublica covering health care. A piece she published with The New York Times on a New Jersey student debt agency prompted a new law and several new bills, aimed at increasing consumer protections for student borrowers and their families. Following her reporting on the largest accreditor of for-profit colleges, the U.S. Department of Education stripped the agency of its powers. Her reporting with Erica Green of The New York Times led to a federal civil rights investigation of discrimination against Native American students on a reservation in Montana.

In 2018, she contributed to the “Lost Mothers” series, which investigated the high rate of maternal mortality in the United States. This series won the 2018 Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting, received a George Polk Award, a Peabody and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for explanatory reporting. Following her reporting on maternal mortality in New York, the city launched a $12.8 million initiative to reduce maternal deaths and complications among women of color.

She graduated with honors from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia, where she was the recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship and the Brown Institute Computational Journalism Award. Her stories have been published in The New York Times, the Atlantic, Vice, BBC News, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Consumer Reports.

She has been a finalist twice and won two awards from the Education Writers Association for her education reporting. She has won an award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and was a finalist for the Loeb Awards for her reporting with Paul Kiel and Al Shaw on the racial disparity of wage garnishment.

Prior to joining ProPublica, she was a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Israel, where she reported on the plight of refugees from Darfur and Eritrea. She was also a recipient of a residency at Cité International des Arts in Paris, France. She had a documentary film in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, on the lives of homeless high school students after Hurricane Katrina, which was later broadcast nationally on PBS. She produced "Phantom Cowboys," a documentary about male adolescence in small industry towns, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018.

Her PGP Key ID is E8F41874.

UnitedHealth Is Strategically Limiting Access to Critical Treatment for Kids With Autism

Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal.

How UnitedHealth’s Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage Puts Countless Americans’ Treatment at Risk

United used an algorithm system to identify patients who it determined were getting too much therapy and then limited coverage. It was deemed illegal in three states, but similar practices persist due to a patchwork of regulation.

New Biden Administration Rules Aim to Hold Insurers Accountable for Mental Health Care Coverage

The regulations will force health insurance plans to collect and report more data on how they limit and deny mental health claims. ProPublica’s reporting has found that insurers regularly shortchange patients seeking treatment.

What Mental Health Care Protections Exist in Your State?

Insurers have wide latitude on when and how they can deny mental health care. We looked at the laws in all 50 states and found that some are charting new paths to secure mental health care access.

Why It’s So Hard to Find a Therapist Who Takes Insurance

Those who need therapy often have to pay out of pocket or go without care, even if they have health insurance. Hundreds of mental health providers told us they fled networks because insurers made their jobs impossible and their lives miserable.

We’re Investigating Mental Health Care Access. Share Your Insights.

ProPublica’s reporters want to talk to mental health providers, health insurance insiders and patients as we examine the U.S. mental health care system. If that’s you, reach out.

This Researcher Warned of Unnecessary, Risky Vascular Procedures. She Was Called a “Nazi” and Accused of “Fratricide.”

After Dr. Caitlin Hicks and her team revealed that some doctors appeared to be overusing lucrative vascular procedures, performing them on patients who may not have needed them, they received hostile pushback from across the profession.

How ProPublica and CareSet Investigated the Overuse of Vascular Procedures

Researchers warned that patients may be undergoing vascular procedures too soon or unnecessarily. ProPublica and CareSet examined federal data to better understand how one treatment is being used.

Thousands of Patients May Be Undergoing Vascular Procedures Too Soon or Unnecessarily

A new analysis of Medicare claims by ProPublica and CareSet found that atherectomies, a procedure to treat vascular disease, were performed on about 30,000 patients who had questionable need for them.

Unstoppable: This Doctor Has Been Investigated at Every Level of Government. How Is He Still Practicing?

Medical boards, a health department and even federal investigators have scrutinized Dr. James McGuckin’s vascular clinics. Today he still practices, despite a decadelong string of sanctions, fines and lawsuits.

¿Tiene una arteria bloqueada en la pierna? Esto es lo que debe saber.

Una investigación de ProPublica encontró que algunos médicos abusan de los tratamientos invasivos para la enfermedad arterial periférica. Ante esto, hablamos con expertos para entender qué deben saber los pacientes cuando buscan atención médica.

¿Tiene experiencia con la enfermedad arterial periférica? ¿Ha tenido un procedimiento en su pierna? Cuéntenos al respecto.

Algunos médicos pueden estar abusando de un procedimiento para despejar las arterias obstruidas en las piernas, lo que podría provocar amputaciones. Necesitamos su ayuda para conectarnos con los pacientes.

Cenas con bistec, representantes de ventas y procedimientos riesgosos: Dentro del gran negocio de las arterias obstruidas

Los mensajes de texto, la demanda de un denunciante y una investigación interna revelan hasta qué punto Medtronic supuestamente “preparó” a los médicos para que abusaran de sus productos vasculares en pacientes en un hospital de veteranos.

En el “salvaje oeste” de la atención vascular ambulatoria, los médicos pueden obtener grandes pagos a medida que los pacientes arriesgan la vida y las extremidades

Para avanzar con los procedimientos vasculares de los hospitales caros, el gobierno aceleró los pagos a los consultorios médicos. En lugar de ahorrar dinero, inició un auge que está enriqueciendo a los médicos y poniendo en peligro a los pacientes.

Blocked Artery in Your Leg? Here’s What You Should Know.

A ProPublica investigation found that some doctors overuse invasive treatments for peripheral artery disease. So we talked to experts to learn what vascular patients should know when seeking care.

In the “Wild West” of Outpatient Vascular Care, Doctors Can Reap Huge Payments as Patients Risk Life and Limb

To move vascular procedures out of expensive hospitals, the government turbocharged payments to doctors’ offices. Instead of saving money, it started a boom that is making doctors rich and putting patients in danger.

Senators Demand Answers About “Alarming” Reports of Excessive and Risky Artery Procedures on Veterans

Hours after ProPublica and The Wichita Eagle published allegations of kickbacks for the “egregious” use of medical devices at a veterans hospital, Kansas’ Republican senators have questions for the VA secretary.

Do You Have Experience With Peripheral Artery Disease? Have You Had a Procedure on Your Leg? Tell Us About It.

Some doctors may be overusing a procedure to clear out clogged arteries in legs, potentially leading to amputations. We need your help connecting with patients, including those who may not know they have had an atherectomy.

Steak Dinners, Sales Reps and Risky Procedures: Inside the Big Business of Clogged Arteries

Text messages, a whistleblower lawsuit and an internal investigation reveal the lengths to which Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device company, allegedly “groomed” doctors to overuse its vascular products in patients at a veterans hospital.

America’s Adult Education System Is Broken. Here’s How Experts Say We Can Fix It.

Experts say that more money is critical to improving the national system. Many states have developed creative solutions in spite of their limited funding.

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