Kirsten Berg
Kirsten Berg is a research reporter with ProPublica.
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Kirsten Berg is a research reporter at ProPublica.
Her collaborations with colleagues in the newsroom have received numerous honors, including the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, a Selden Ring Award, an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and medal, and recognition as a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
She has contributed to investigations on a range of topics, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s hobbled response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise and ramifications of Chinese transnational repression and organized crime, and the federal judiciary’s repeated failures to provide ethical oversight for its judges.
Prior to joining ProPublica, she was an editor at Future Tense, the deputy director of the New America Fellows Program, and a reporter at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. She was also once an intern at ProPublica.
You can email her securely at [email protected].
Her Mental Health Treatment Was Helping. That’s Why Insurance Cut Off Her Coverage.
Providers, patients and even some federal judges say progress-based insurance denials harm patients at key moments of mental health treatment.
Insurers Continue to Rely on Doctors Whose Judgments Have Been Criticized by Courts
In dozens of cases ProPublica reviewed, judges found that some doctors working for these companies engaged in “selective readings” of medical evidence and “shut their eyes” to medical opinions opposing their conclusions.
Formaldehyde Causes More Cancer Than Any Other Toxic Air Pollutant. Little Is Being Done to Curb the Risk.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s attempts to reckon with formaldehyde have been repeatedly thwarted by the companies that rely on it. If the past is any guide, even modest steps toward reform are all but guaranteed to hit a dead end under Trump.
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.
Election Skeptics Are Running Some County Election Boards in Georgia. A New Rule Could Allow Them to Exclude Decisive Votes.
An examination of a new election rule in Georgia suggests that local officials in just a handful of rural counties could exclude enough votes to affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential race.
Did a Georgia Hospital Break Federal Law When It Failed to Save Amber Thurman? A Senate Committee Chair Wants Answers.
Thurman died after waiting 20 hours for emergency care under the state’s abortion ban. Sen. Ron Wyden demanded records his committee could review to determine whether the hospital violated the law. “It’s not even a question,” one expert said.
Afraid to Seek Care Amid Georgia’s Abortion Ban, She Stayed at Home and Died
Candi Miller’s family said she didn't visit a doctor “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions.” Maternal health experts deemed her death preventable and blamed Georgia’s abortion ban.
Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.
At least two women in Georgia died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state, ProPublica has found. This is one of their stories.
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.
Escaping Oklahoma: A Worker’s Story From Inside an Illegal Marijuana Operation
Menacing guards, threats at gunpoint, workers held against their will and never paid — a Chinese immigrant describes the harsh and violent conditions on an illegal pot farm. Three years after he escaped, he still lives in fear.
Jiaai Zeng Died Weeks After Starting Work at an Oklahoma Marijuana Farm. His Family Wants Answers.
Thousands of Chinese immigrant laborers suffer abuse and exploitation in a U.S. marijuana underworld dominated by Chinese mafias. A human rights advocate says: “They have not escaped the darkness of China.”