KFF Well being Information and Cox Media Group Tv Stations introduced at present that they acquired the 2024 Goldsmith Awards’ inaugural Authorities Reporting Prize for his or her joint reporting within the collection “Overpayment Outrage,” which uncovered how the Social Safety Administration routinely diminished or suspended month-to-month checks to take again funds to repay giant money owed that had been typically created by its personal miscalculation of individuals’s advantages.
The investigation revealed that greater than two million individuals every year are hit with overpayments, together with these least capable of repay the debt, similar to people who’re poor, outdated, disabled, blind or who are suffering from a power sickness.
The reporting triggered congressional hearings, a “top-to-bottom” overview by Social Safety officers and elevated Senate oversight. Commissioner Martin O’Malley additionally lately introduced sweeping coverage adjustments to cease what he known as “clawback cruelty” and “grave injustices.”
The Shorenstein Heart on Media, Politics and Public Coverage on the Harvard Kennedy College honored KFF Well being Information and Cox Media Group on the Goldsmith Awards ceremony yesterday with the brand new prize, which acknowledges reporting on how authorities and public coverage implementation works, together with how and why it might fail and the way it can most successfully and effectively remedy issues.
“This collection uncovered the numerous impression of those errors on hundreds of thousands of individuals, together with those that had little to no potential to pay again the federal government, forcing some individuals to lose their houses, automobiles and financial savings,” mentioned KFF President and CEO Drew Altman, who’s the founding Writer of KFF Well being Information. “For this reason KFF stories on systemic points like this by our information service—to disclose how individuals are affected by coverage. ”
“We’re honored to obtain this prestigious award as a result of it displays CMG’s dedication to native information and investigative journalism,” mentioned Marian Pittman, CMG’s President of Content material. “The workforce’s relentless efforts to uncover the reality behind advanced authorities insurance policies and their implementation has resulted in tangible adjustments throughout the SSA and can immediately profit hundreds of thousands of individuals impacted by overpayments.”
The collection was reported by David Hilzenrath and Fred Clasen-Kelly of KFF Well being Information and Jodie Fleischer of Cox Media Group. A listing of further contributors is accessible right here.
Extra on “Overpayment Outrage”
Every year the Social Safety Administration (SSA) points billions of {dollars} in overpayments to recipients whose incomes or different qualifying standards have modified. Underneath federal regulation, the SSA is required to demand compensation of this cash, treating it as a debt to the federal authorities. These clawbacks can occur even a long time after the preliminary overpayments.
In “Overpayment Outrage,” Cox Media Group and KFF Well being Information examined the overpayment difficulty and the impacts clawbacks have on weak individuals. They discovered that overpayments occur on account of guidelines which can be advanced and laborious to observe, insufficient SSA staffing, outdated limits on property and lagged or in any other case inaccurate knowledge on revenue and different beneficiary info. The reporting additionally laid out potential options to handle the legislative, funding, and course of failures that trigger this systemic downside.
In regards to the Reporting Partnership
KFF Well being Information and Cox Media Group tv stations used FOIA requests, stories by the inspector normal and SSA and interviews with company staff, advocates for the disabled and dozens of beneficiaries to piece collectively the story. What emerged was proof of a systemic downside by which the SSA routinely reduces or halts month-to-month profit checks to reclaim billions of {dollars} in funds it despatched to beneficiaries then later mentioned they need to not have acquired.
After they printed the collection, a whole bunch of incapacity beneficiaries got here ahead with troubling accounts, together with that the federal government despatched them overpayment notices with out clarification and threatened to chop off their most important supply of revenue with little warning. The company has since restored advantages to a number of of the beneficiaries featured within the reporting.
About KFF and KFF Well being Information
KFF is a nonprofit well being coverage analysis, polling and information group. Our mission is to function a nonpartisan supply of data for policymakers, the media, the well being coverage neighborhood and the general public. KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth and award-winning journalism about well being points and is among the core working packages at KFF. KFF Well being Information has been acknowledged repeatedly for its journalism, with awards honoring its investigative stories on the American well being care system.
Different main KFF packages embrace Coverage Evaluation; KFF Polling and Survey Analysis; and KFF Social Affect Media, which conducts specialised public well being info campaigns. A brand new program on Well being Misinformation and Belief will probably be launched quickly.