Maya Miller

Engagement Reporter

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Maya Miller is an engagement reporter at ProPublica working on community-sourced investigations. She’s collaborated across and beyond the newsroom on series about aggressive medical debt collection practices, housing and evictions, as well as toxic air pollution and health. The impact of her reporting includes a national doctors’ group announcing it would stop suing patients for medical debt, state legislators introducing a bill to repeal a criminal eviction statute, as well as federal lawmakers and officials promising investigations and reforms.

Her reporting within ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, which has included working with residents to monitor air quality and crowdsourcing real-time reactions to air pollution, has contributed to several awards. These include a 2020 Selden Ring Award and Gerald Loeb Award (“Profiting from the Poor”), as well as a 2021 finalist for the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics and the Gather Award in Engaged Journalism (“State of Denial”). Her work has appeared in NBC Investigations, Chicago magazine and the Chicago Tribune, among others. She lives in New York and speaks Spanish.

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.

Swept Away

From birth certificates to loved ones’ ashes, these are just some of the belongings cities take when they clear homeless encampments.

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.

Have You Experienced Homelessness? Do You Work With People Who Have? Connect With Our Reporters.

Journalists in our newsroom are working on multiple projects related to homelessness in New York, Maine and Oregon. We’re also interested in how cities have further criminalized sleeping outside. Learn more about our work and how to get in touch.

A Doctor at Cigna Said Her Bosses Pressured Her to Review Patients’ Cases Too Quickly. Cigna Threatened to Fire Her.

Cigna tracks every minute that its staff doctors spend deciding whether to pay for health care. Dr. Debby Day said her bosses cared more about being fast than being right: “Deny, deny, deny. That’s how you hit your numbers,” Day said.

New EPA Rule to Slash Cancer-Causing Emissions From Sterilization Facilities

The new rule comes after a 2021 investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed the EPA’s yearslong failure to inform communities of the risks they faced from cancer-causing ethylene oxide emissions.

Michigan Lawmaker Introduces Bill Requiring State Health Plans to Cover Cutting-Edge Cancer Treatments

After ProPublica reported on a Michigan insurer that wouldn’t cover a cancer patient’s last-chance treatment, a state lawmaker introduced a measure compelling health plans to cover a new generation of advanced cancer therapies.

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.

Health Plans Can’t Dodge Paying for Expensive New Cancer Treatments, Says Michigan’s Top Insurance Regulator

After ProPublica reported on a health insurer that refused to cover the only medicine that could save a cancer patient’s life, Michigan insurance regulators clarified that, by law, many plans must pay for any clinically proven treatments.

Health Insurers Have Been Breaking State Laws for Years

States have passed hundreds of laws to protect people from wrongful insurance denials. Yet from emergency services to fertility preservation, insurers still say no.

Insurance Executives Refused to Pay for the Cancer Treatment That Could Have Saved Him. This Is How They Did It.

A Michigan law requires coverage of cancer drugs. One insurer came up with a “defensible” way to avoid paying for treatments that offered Forrest VanPatten his last chance for survival. “We crossed the line,” says a former executive.

You Have a Right to Know Why a Health Insurer Denied Your Claim. Some Insurers Still Won’t Tell You.

Federal regulations require insurers to promptly hand over records to patients facing claim denials. Some insurers only turned over their files after ProPublica reached out.

Find Out Why Your Health Insurer Denied Your Claim

You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file from your health insurance company.

Do You Have Experience in or With the Plastics Industry? Tell Us About It.

Help journalists at the investigative nonprofit newsroom ProPublica examine plastics from creation to recycling and disposal. If you’ve worked in or been affected by the plastics industry, we want to hear from you.

¿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.

Congressional Committee, Regulators Question Cigna System That Lets Its Doctors Deny Claims Without Reading Patient Files

The probes follow an investigation by ProPublica and The Capitol Forum that Cigna allows its doctors to reject hundreds of thousands of claims a month.

Health Insurance Claim Denied? See What Insurers Said Behind the Scenes

Learn how to request your health insurance claim file, which can include details about what your insurer is saying about you and your case.

EPA Proposes Major Air Pollution Reforms to Lower Residents’ Cancer Risk Near Industrial Facilities

The EPA has proposed tougher air pollution rules for chemical plants and other industrial facilities after ProPublica found an estimated 74 million Americans near those sites faced an elevated risk of cancer.

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