Sammy Mack
Public radio. Public health. Public policy.
Most days, Sammy Mack covers health care policy for WLRN. Her health care journalism is supported by a fellowship with the Kaiser Health News and NPR Health Care Reporting in the States project.
Like most folks who've worked at a member station, she's worn a lot of hats: interim digital editor during the re-launch of WLRN.org, assistant producer for The Florida Roundup, morning news producer, intern coordinator, party planner. She was one half of the StateImpact Florida education reporting team.
Her stories have appeared on NPR, Kaiser Health News, Monocle 24, the Miami Herald, Global Health, Health News Florida, Gambit Weekly, MAP Magazine, Gulfshore Life, Philadelphia Weekly, the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times) and other outlets.
Mack’s work has been honored with a Third Coast Best News Feature Award, Green Eyeshade Award for Investigative Journalism, and Florida AP Broadcaster and SPJ Sunshine State awards. She’s collaborated on projects that have won a Third Coast International Audio Festival bronze award, an Emmy, national and regional Edward R. Murrow awards, a Wilbur Award and a Dart Award. Mack was a writing fellow during the 2008 Poynter Summer Fellowship for Young Journalists.
She was recognized by her colleagues as the 2011 Herald Top Chef. She’s happy to share her recipe for garam masala macarons with lemongrass filling.
You can find her on Twitter @sammymack.
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Florida has struggled for years with opioid overdoses — and the highest rate of HIV infection in the U.S. Lawmakers now hope needle exchanges and a "harm reduction" approach could help save lives. -
Pregnant women in South Florida can get free Zika tests through the state's health department. But delays in getting back the results are heightening worries and may affect medical options. -
There's only one place in the continental U.S. where mosquitoes are known to be transmitting the Zika virus: Miami's Wynwood neighborhood. Pregnant women are arming themselves against mosquitoes.
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For some obstetricians and gynecologists, Zika virus is transforming how they practice medicine. Talks with pregnant patients now include testing for the virus and the risks of long-term effects. -
More than 30 percent of Floridians report having serious financial problems, compared with 26 percent of adults nationwide. Digging into those poll numbers shows large medical bills can be ruinous. -
Large employers like the Miami-Dade school district pay for employees' health insurance, but are often forbidden from knowing how much providers charge and insurers pay for care. -
A patient's portion of a health care bill is the result of a complicated equation. But it's simple compared with the variety of deals insurers negotiate with hospitals and doctors.
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Schools collect a trove of student information, like attendance and grades. Now, more schools are mining that data to flag kids at risk of dropping out — often before anyone realizes they need help. -
Florida has resisted the Affordable Care Act from the get-go, so one of the state's large insurers and Spanish-language media have done most of the outreach to Latinos.
