Blog Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the Perspectives blog. Please refer to our guidelines to ensure your post can be successfully reviewed and approved for publication. If you have any questions, please email Carol Davis, Associate Director of Research and Publications, Health Care Financing Initiative (HCFI), McCourt School of Public Policy, at hcfi@georgetown.edu. 

Perspectives is a monthly blog of opinions, ideas, and insights from experts and leaders involved in health care finance and public policy. The Health Care Financing Initiative (HCFI) at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy publishes the blog as a forum for thought leadership and discussion.

Founded in 2018 with support from the nonprofit Institute for Critical Care Foundation, HCFI conducts and aggregates research to foster engagement and education among policy makers, health care leaders, health practitioners, industry experts, researchers, faculty, and students about health care financing. It also serves as a facilitator for collaborative, solution-focused ideas that spotlight financial processes and systems affecting public health and health policy.  

Topics of Special Interest: Perspectives will publish posts on a wide range of finance-related health care topics and trends. We welcome suggestions for topics and authors. This year, we are particularly interested in:

• Healthcare payment reforms

• Public policy for equitable access to high-value, specialized care, or post-acute services

 • The incidence and financial burden of health care costs

• Long-term implications emerging from the COVID-19 public health emergency

Audience: Perspectives serves a diverse readership working within or interested in health care financing. This audience includes researchers, health care and financial experts, policy and health care students, policy makers, health care practitioners, philanthropic and nonprofit professionals involved in health or financial education and policy, and others interested in the systems and models of public health care.  

Writing Style: For the blog, posts may use a conversational style in first-person voice, targeting an informed reader but avoiding overuse of jargon. To make the work most accessible to a readership with a diverse range of expertise, please be mindful of using industry terms and define them in the article.

Content Review: Content must be original to the blog. All blog submissions are reviewed by HCFI staff, who may also turn to external reviewers for input. HCFI staff have final say regarding publication. Once accepted, all posts will receive editing for clarity, style, and grammar. If HCFI staff find that substantive editing was necessary, you will be sent the edited copy for approval and a deadline for turnaround. Please include both an email address, as well as a preferred phone number, with the submission.  HCFI retains the right of final approval of all content. You will receive a confirmation of receipt of the idea or post within approximately 2 business days, and a decision on publication will follow approximately two weeks later. 

Headline: Please include one or two suggested headlines with your submission, keeping in mind that most readers search by key word or phrase. Headlines may be edited to optimize them for search, to clarify reader understanding, or to accommodate space limitations. 

Payment: No author will receive payment for any post, nor will the author be charged a fee.

Publication Timing: New blog posts are to be published the first week of each month, and HCFI will schedule each accepted submission as soon as the editorial calendar can accommodate it.  

Word Count: Blog posts should run between 500 and 800 words, including any citations.

Citations: Citations are not required, but posts should contain enough empirical or personal anecdotal data to ensure editorial confidence.

Links: Links are permitted and should take readers to credible scientific, academic, government, research, or other evidence-based sources.

Byline: All posts contain a byline and have a one-sentence biography of the author below the content that includes the author’s name, credentials, title, and affiliation; no anonymous posts are permitted. Joint or team authorship is permitted.

Comments: Comments are not enabled on the blog at this time. Instead, we encourage sharing of comments via the HCFI Twitter feed at @GUhealthfinance or an email to hcfi@georgetown.edu

Artwork: A digital color headshot of the author is required and should be sent to carol.davis@georgetown.edu once the post is formally accepted. Additional photos (with any necessary credit and license to use), graphics, or charts are negotiable. Authors accept that they alone are responsible for obtaining any copyright permissions needed for their blog artwork. Georgetown University and HCFI does not accept any legal liability for copyright infringement of graphics or photos used on the blog. Please note any photographic or graphic credits needed to accompany artwork in an accepted post. 

Promotion: All blog posts will be featured on the HCFI online site and may also appear in other Georgetown University sites or social media. Authors are encouraged to share links to their posts on their own websites, social media, and elsewhere with credit to HCFI.

Reprints/reposts: To reprint the post, please send a request to Carol.Davis@georgetown.edu.