Scott Hensley
Scott Hensley edits stories about health, biomedical research and pharmaceuticals for NPR's Science desk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has led the desk's reporting on the development of vaccines against the coronavirus.
Hensley has worked on award-winning investigations in collaboration with journalistic partners.
He was the lead NPR editor on an investigation with the Center for Public Integrity in 2018 that exposed drug industry influence on the choices of preferred medicines by Medicaid programs. The work won the 2019 Gerald Loeb Award for audio reporting.
In 2017, Hensley was the lead NPR editor on an investigation with Kaiser Health News that showed how the pharmaceutical industry exploits government incentives intended to encourage the development of treatments for rare diseases. The stories won the 2019 digital award from the National Institute for Health Care Management.
Hensley has been editing in his current role since 2019. He joined NPR in 2009 to launch , a blog that expanded to become a digital destination for NPR health coverage.
Before NPR, Hensley was a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal. He was the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal Health Blog, which focused on the intersection of health and business. As a reporter, he covered the drug industry and the Human Genome Project.
Hensley served on the board of the Association of Health Care Journalists from 2012 to 2020.
He has a bachelor's degree in natural sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a master's in journalism from Columbia University.
Before becoming a journalist, Hensley worked in the medical device industry. He remains, now and forever, a lover of Dobermans, lacrosse and Callinectes sapidus.
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The agency still doesn't know what's inside jerkies, tenders and strips that have sickened thousands of dogs and killed hundreds. An ongoing investigation is focused on treats imported from China. Pet owners should watch for loss of appetite, listlessness and vomiting. -
About $29 billion in funding for the expansion of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act is expected to come from a tax on devices. Hip implants, MRI scanners and catheters to unclog heart arteries are all affected. Toothbrushes, contact lenses, hearing aids and other consumer products are exempt. -
Many people aren't sure if they'll qualify for subsidized insurance. Many also don't know how much insurance might cost them. Information about premiums is now available in most places, and here's a tool to make use of it.
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Nearly half the horn players in an Australian study noticed that they'd lost some of their hearing. Among the younger horn players, hearing tests found that up to one-third of them had noise-related hearing deficits. -
Many of the cost factors that people think are the most important pale in comparison to those that actually are. Mismanagement and fraud top the list. New technologies and treatments are low. Most people think beneficiaries pay their own way or have prepaid for care, neither of which is the the case.
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When many states ease eligibility rules for Medicaid in January, the new enrollees are likely to include more men, whites and people in generally good health. -
If you have health coverage, you're more likely to go to the doctor. And that's one reason to think that the rollout of the federal health law could help bring down death rates from cardiovascular disease. -
About 9 million American adults have taken sleeping pills in the past month. Their popularity generally increases with age and is highest among people 80 and older. -
Dengue fever was commonplace in Florida until the 1930s. Air conditioning, window screens and better mosquito control helped break the dengue cycle. Now the mosquito-borne illness is back. -
An analysis allays concerns that Medicare beneficiaries may have trouble getting in to see doctors. Access has been stable and is on par, or a little better, than for people with private health insurance.
