Reporter says he was threatened with ban from press calls after declining to alter story: report

The Hill: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has been accused of threatening to bar a reporter from Modern Healthcare from its press calls.

The threat came after the reporter, Virgil Dickson, claimed he did not agree to alter a story he wrote to take out a part regarding CMS administrator Seema Verma, according to the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ).

The story, published Jan. 23, was about the resignation of a Brian Neale, who oversaw Medicaid. The story said that the departure was a result of "some sort of disagreement between Verma and Neale that erupted in the past few days."

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