Max Blau
I cover health care, the environment, agriculture and immigration for ProPublica’s South unit.
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What I Cover
I am currently reporting on how the H-2A visa program may expand and transform during President Donald Trump’s second term and the potential impact on agricultural workers, farm owners and the supply chains that bring crops to our grocery stores.
My Background
My stories have uncovered a series of preventable deaths that occurred within a prominent transplant center in Tennessee, exposed a powerful utility’s controversial toxic waste disposal practices in Georgia and revealed how a wealthy governor’s family perpetuated a harmful legacy of environmental injustice in Alabama.
My colleagues and I have published “Sacrifice Zones,” a series that examined how toxic air pollution from industrial plants has elevated cancer risk for millions of Americans. I was also part of a team that reported “America’s Mental Barrier,” which focused on the ways that insurance companies interfere with mental health care.
Before ProPublica, I was an independent journalist who published stories in a variety of national publications, including The Atavist, The Atlantic, Time and STAT. I had worked as a staff writer for CNN, Atlanta magazine and the Atlanta alt-weekly Creative Loafing. I also co-founded Canopy Atlanta, a local news organization that pays and trains community members to become journalists.
“I Don’t Want to Die”: Needing Mental Health Care, He Got Trapped in His Insurer’s Ghost Network
Ravi Coutinho bought a health insurance plan thinking it would deliver on its promise of access to mental health providers. But even after 21 phone calls and multiple hospitalizations, no one could find him a therapist.
Inside the Preventable Deaths That Happened Within a Prominent Transplant Center
Dr. James Eason, who earned acclaim by operating on Steve Jobs, led the transplant center named in his honor at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis. An internal analysis by Eason’s own team details the preventable deaths under his watch.
The Tragedy of North Birmingham
Industrial plants in Birmingham, Alabama, have polluted the air and land in its historic Black communities for over a century. In an epicenter of environmental injustice, officials continue to fail to right the wrongs plaguing the city’s north side.
The Coal Plant Next Door
Near America’s largest coal-fired power plant, toxins are showing up in drinking water and people have fallen ill. Thousands of pages of internal documents show how one giant energy company plans to avoid the cleanup costs.
Local Reporting Network
Insurers Failed to Comply With Mental Health Coverage Law, Department of Labor Report Finds
The probe found widespread noncompliance and violations of federal law in how health plans and insurers cover mental health care, echoing the findings of a recent ProPublica investigation.
State Regulators Know Health Insurance Directories Are Full of Wrong Information. They’re Doing Little to Fix It.
State agencies say they’re holding insurers accountable for errors in provider directories. But ProPublica found that the actual actions taken so far do not match the regulators’ rhetoric.
Struggling to Find an In-Network Mental Health Provider? Here’s What You Can Do.
Insurers’ failures to update their provider directories have led to dire consequences for people seeking mental health care. Experts, clinicians and advocates explain how you can navigate these challenges to find 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.
How Georgia’s Small Power Companies Endanger Their Most Vulnerable Customers
The state’s small electricity providers aren’t required to delay disconnecting seriously ill customers who depend on medical devices, putting lives at risk.
Wealthy Family Wants to Reopen Major Industrial Polluter Despite Mounting Debts and Proposed Regulation
A new EPA proposal could soon limit the toxic emissions that pollute Birmingham’s historically Black north side. It could also complicate plans to reopen a shuttered plant owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice.
He Needed a Liver Transplant. But Did the Risks Outweigh the Reward?
A transplant program in Memphis took pride in replacing the livers of patients turned away by other hospitals. One patient’s liver transplant illustrates the promise and peril of operating on people with serious risk factors.
Wealthy Governor’s Company to Pay Nearly $1 Million for Chronic Air Pollution Violations
Bluestone Coke, owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, signed a consent decree that could allow its Birmingham plant to reopen under stricter oversight.