The Kaiser Family Foundation has announced a $3.9 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to expand Kaiser Health News (KHN).

The gift will enable KHN to establish a rural health reporting desk by expanding the organization’s editorial staff and building a team of journalists and social media experts in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Reporters will produce and distribute explanatory, enterprise, and investigative stories on healthcare issues relevant to rural communities, including the ongoing pandemic, access to health coverage and care, housing and education, the burden of healthcare costs on consumers, the opioid epidemic, mental health, hospital closures, the lack of lifesaving equipment, and changes in telehealth and medicine.

“Rural America’s low population density provides significant challenges in the delivery of healthcare services, yet at the same time dedicated providers are delivering top-notch care through innovative practices, like state-of-the-art telemedicine,” said Walter Panzirer, a trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “KHN’s new rural health reporting desk will dive deep into these challenges and highlight efforts that ensure a person’s ZIP code doesn’t determine their healthcare outcomes.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/porpeller)