Robin Fields
I’m a reporter covering health, including the drug industry, insurance denials and reproductive care.
Need to Get in Touch?
I’m interested in hearing from patients, their families and those formerly or currently working in health care about practices that put lives at risk or abuse a system all of our lives depend on.
What I Cover
I’m covering health, including the drug industry, insurance denials and changes in access to reproductive care.
My Background
I was among the first reporters to join ProPublica in 2008, and I then went on to serve as the managing editor from 2013 to 2022 before returning to reporting. Stories I’ve reported or edited have won pretty much all the journalism awards there are. As a ProPublica reporter, I’ve written mostly about health, including stories on U.S. dialysis care, psychiatric hospitals, maternal mortality, health insurance denials and pricey prescription drugs. Before joining ProPublica, I was a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where I investigated California’s guardianship system for incapacitated adults, and the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida, where I wrote about consumer scams as well as innumerable disasters, both natural and manmade.
What a $2 Million Per Dose Gene Therapy Reveals About Drug Pricing
Taxpayers and charities helped develop Zolgensma. Then it debuted at a record price, ushering in a new class of wildly expensive drugs. Its story upends the widely held conception that high prices reflect huge industry investments in innovation.
A Coast Guard Commander Miscarried. She Nearly Died After Being Denied Care.
U.S. service members have long faced strict limits on abortions, even when used to resolve miscarriages. Under federal law, the military will only pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.
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.
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.
The CDC Hasn’t Asked States to Track Deaths Linked to Abortion Bans
The Biden administration hasn’t delivered on its goals of measuring the public health impact of abortion bans. Experts say it’s a missed opportunity to study how the laws may lead to deaths and long-term injuries.
Are Abortion Bans Across America Causing Deaths? The States That Passed Them Are Doing Little to Find Out.
The same political leaders who enacted abortion bans oversee the state committees that review maternal deaths. These committees haven’t tracked the laws’ impacts, and most haven’t finished examining cases from the year the bans went into effect.
What to Know About the Roiling Debate Over U.S. Maternal Mortality Rates
A new study challenged the accuracy of public health data on deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth — and the narrative of high and rising U.S. maternal mortality rates. An unusual public dispute has ensued.
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.
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.
How Often Do Health Insurers Say No to Patients? No One Knows.
Insurers’ denial rates — a critical measure of how reliably they pay for customers’ care — remain mostly secret to the public. Federal and state regulators have done little to change that.
Au bord de la catastrophe
Une simple clairière de forêt nous sépare de la prochaine pandémie mortelle. Mais nous n’essayons même pas de la prévenir.
The Next Deadly Pandemic Is Just a Forest Clearing Away
Returning to the starting point of the world’s worst Ebola outbreak reveals how the global community failed the people of Meliandou, Guinea — and the many ways we’re not doing enough to prevent the next virus from jumping species and taking off.
The COVID-19 Booster’s Public Relations Problem
With a new coronavirus booster rolling out, a leading expert on vaccines explains how public health leaders have struggled to set expectations for the COVID-19 vaccine and convey clearly who benefits from each additional shot.
New York Polio Case Now Connected to Traces of Virus Found in UK and Israel
Using sewage sample tests from three countries separated by thousands of miles, public health officials hope to unravel the mystery of where this polio started circulating and what threat it poses.