Meet Our Reporters
Lauren Flynn Kelly
Executive Editor, AIS Health, and Managing Editor, Radar on Medicare Advantage
Lauren has been covering health business issues since the early 2000s and specializes in in-depth reporting on Medicare Advantage, managed Medicaid and Medicare Part D. She also possesses a deep understanding of the complex world of pharmacy benefit management, having written AIS Health’s Radar on Drug Benefits from 2004 to 2005 and again from 2011 to 2016. In addition to her role as managing editor of Radar on Medicare Advantage, she oversees AIS Health’s publications and manages the health editorial staff. She graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in English.
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Angela Maas
Managing Editor, Radar on Specialty Pharmacy and Spotlight on Market Access
Angela has an extensive background of editing, reporting and writing for trade and consumer publications. She has written Radar on Specialty Pharmacy since she joined AIS Health in 2005 and has broad knowledge of the various issues at play within the space. She also has written for Spotlight on Market Access since its 2017 launch. Before joining AIS Health, she was managing editor at Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit News Canada and managing editor at Hem Aware (a hemophilia publication), Lupus Living and Momentum (a multiple sclerosis publication). She has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in British literature from Arizona State University.
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Leslie Small
Managing Editor, Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits
Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.
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Laura Helbling
Senior Writer, Pink Sheet
Laura is the director of research at Prevision Policy and a senior writer at Pink Sheet. She has a degree in magazine journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Tim Casey
Reporter, Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits
Tim has been a reporter and editor for newspapers, websites and magazines for more than 20 years, including 10 years covering health care business topics. He has a deep knowledge of the managed care industry and pharmacy benefit management. He also has experience covering medical conferences and clinical and legislative health care issues. In 2014, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing selected Tim as one of 15 journalists to participate in a national symposium on the Affordable Care Act. Tim has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.
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Carina Belles
Reporter, Radar on Medicare Advantage and Spotlight on Market Access
Carina has been covering public-sector health care since 2018. As a data reporter for Radar on Medicare Advantage, she creates infographics and data stories on issues impacting Medicare, Medicaid and Part D. She also develops AIS Health Daily, a free daily newsletter that showcases AIS’s strong reporting across our four publications and parent company Norstella’s suite of market access and data solutions. Prior to joining the editorial team, she managed Medicare and Medicaid data for the Directory of Health Plans, AIS’s industry-standard health coverage database. She graduated from Ohio University with a B.S. in Journalism.
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Jinghong Chen
Reporter, Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits
Jinghong has been producing infographics and data stories on employer-sponsored insurance, public health insurance programs and prescription drug coverage for AIS Health’s Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits since 2018. She also manages AIS Health’s annual executive compensation database for top insurers and Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates. Before joining AIS Health, she interned at WBEZ, Al Jazeera English and The New York Times Chinese. She graduated from Missouri School of Journalism with a focus on data journalism and international reporting.
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Jill Drachenberg
Reporter, Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits
Jill has been a reporter and editor since 2005, mainly focusing on business and health care. Before joining AIS Health, she was an editor for Relias Media (formerly AHC Media), focusing on topics such as case management, medical ethics, risk management, infection control, hospital management, and contraceptive technology. She has a B.A. in journalism from Georgia State University.
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AIS Health Staff
M. Nielsen Hobbs
Executive Editor, US Regulatory & Policy, In Vivo
Nielsen is the executive editor in In Vivo. He has been covering the pharmaceutical industry most of his life, reporting on everything from ANDAs to Zika vaccines.
Jessica Merrill
Senior Editor, Scrip and Pink Sheet
Jessica is a senior editor, contributing most frequently to daily pharmaceutical coverage in Scrip and Pink Sheet. With a lengthy career covering the pharmaceutical sector, she specializes primarily in business and commercial news, launch strategy, M&A and market access issues.
Cathy Kelly
Senior Writer, Pink Sheet
Cathy is a senior writer with Pink Sheet and has covered U.S. regulation and reimbursement policy for the biopharma industry since 2004, starting with the establishment of the Medicare Part D program. Since then, she has written extensively about developments in all major sectors of the U.S. insurance market (Medicare, Medicaid and commercial plans). She has covered key legislation affecting biopharma, including the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act which created Part D, health care reform under President Obama, and the Inflation Reduction Act. She has closely followed the increasing influence of pharmacy benefit managers and their use of formulary negotiations and rebates to control pricing. Cathy also has covered developments in health technology assessments and has monitored industry progress on novel drug contracting that reflects value-based pricing.
Sarah Karlin-Smith
Senior Writer, Pink Sheet
Sarah is a senior writer with Pink Sheet and has covered U.S. regulation and reimbursement policy for the biopharma industry since 2004, starting with the establishment of the Medicare Part D program. Since then, she has written extensively about developments in all major sectors of the U.S. insurance market (Medicare, Medicaid and commercial plans). She has covered key legislation affecting biopharma, including the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act which created Part D, health care reform under President Obama, and the Inflation Reduction Act. She has closely followed the increasing influence of pharmacy benefit managers and their use of formulary negotiations and rebates to control pricing. Cathy also has covered developments in health technology assessments and has monitored industry progress on novel drug contracting that reflects value-based pricing.
Mandy Jackson
Managing Editor, Scrip and Pink Sheet
Mandy is the managing editor with Scrip and Pink Sheet and reports on daily biopharma developments, writes feature stories and produces Scrip's Finance Watch column. She covers finance, start-ups, dealmaking, clinical trial results, quarterly earnings reports, commercial competition and corporate strategy.