This fall, Diane Lund-Muzikant was to be honored by the National Federation of Press Women with the 2025 Communicator of Achievement award, citing an unprecedented record of investigative journalism in the service of health care transparency. This is their presentation in honor of her life’s work.
In 1968, feisty Diane Siegel was bitten by the travel bug and spent what should have been college tuition on a flight to Europe. She returned to the U.S. in 1972 as Diane Lund, sole support of a two-year-old daughter born in Jerusalem. It seemed her fearless travel days were over.
Oregon journalist Diane Lund-Muzikant, founder of The Lund Report, at her home in February 2023.
Jake / The Lund Report
She survived by patching together freelance journalism jobs in Portland, Oregon. She was a stringer for the Community Press, a local weekly, covering government and school board developments in suburban Beaverton. Ambitious and enterprising, she created a bi-monthly religious magazine, Shalom Oregon, convening an ecumenical board of Roman Catholic, Jewish and Protestant leaders that set themes and provided content for five years. She wrote feature articles for The Oregonian daily newspaper, People magazine and Good Housekeeping.
In 1974, she completed the University of Minnesota graduation requirements for a B.A. in journalism and German. She also joined Oregon Press Women (OPW), a local affiliate of the National Federation of Press Women.
In 1986, journalist Diane, 48 years old, got a plum assignment when the Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland hired her to do health care reporting for The Scribe, their monthly publication.
She didn’t know she was embarking on a path that would lead to a unique destination — using her investigative skills to educate the public about the inner workings of Oregon’s health care industry. The mission would remain her passion for nearly 40 years. She retired in 2024 with accolades from the state’s medical community, media and federal legislators.
Interviewing physicians and practice managers for The Scribe, Diane learned that insurance companies were dictating patient care and that big mergers impacted clinicians at every level. She became aware of a broken health care system, a topic no local and few national news outlets covered.
The knowledge launched her career as a freelance health policy journalist. She wrote articles for the American Medical Association News, American Health, Medical World News, Medical Business Journal and Health Week.
Soon she recognized that Oregon’s health care stakeholders had no common communication outlet. Garnering private donations and grants, in 1991, she established a nonprofit, the Oregon Health Forum. Her Board of Directors from insurance, medical, legal and consumer groups would manage the Forum’s fiscal, business and business aspects.
The Forum she created held public health care panels where industry leaders came together to discuss pressing issues. As executive director, she brought together stakeholders from diverse perspectives to grapple with the most critical health policy issues facing the state — health care financing, delivery and policy. An advertisement-free monthly newsletter, Oregon Health News, reported on developments of concern. The Forum enterprise was financed by tax-deductible subscriptions to the 12-page journal. Diane, executive editor, delved into and reported on industry practices.
She was relentless, unearthing and reporting salaries of insurance and medical leaders, revealing hospital and insurance company profits and penalties.
Prominent players exposed by her reporting fought back, claiming she distorted her findings. Diane defended her work, pointing out she’d made corrections when errors occurred. Commenting on the controversy, Portland’s Willamette Week newspaper noted ironically that one accuser’s base salary was $185,000 in contrast to the $60,000 (without benefits) Diane earned for her work. The Forum board stood behind her, and she continued her investigative journalism.
Diane said of Oregon Health News, “We strive to be the Pacific Northwest’s most comprehensive health policy news source. The editorial staff has complete freedom, not affiliated with any special interest group.” She oversaw a team of news reporters.
Having a small but competent staff proved important when, shortly after her marriage to Michael Muzikant in 1994, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She could delegate work and free up time for the comprehensive treatment that led to her becoming a breast cancer survivor.
From 1998 on, as Diane Lund-Muzikant, she continued her work with Oregon Health News and also plunged into local and national cancer research endeavors. She co-founded and served as Board Chair of Rachel’s Friends Breast Cancer Coalition, an educational and advocacy organization focused on the environmental impacts of cancer.
She remained OHF Executive Editor until 2006, when the Board of Directors tried to force her retirement from the organization she founded. Diane suspected they hoped a less-aggressive reporting stance would increase the newsletter’s subscriptions and ease financial tensions. Reluctantly, she left her 16-year position.
She didn’t go quietly. She filed charges of wrongful termination, claiming the Health Forum breached its employment agreement with her and that their decision to fire her was based on her age, 68. The organization settled for an undisclosed amount. She won her fight against the non-compete clause included in her departure documents.
The Oregon Health Forum and the newsletter she founded went out of business within four years.
At 70, she set up a website and began The Lund Report, a nonprofit electronic newsletter with a narrow mission: to serve as an independent, nonpartisan news service devoted exclusively to covering Oregon’s health care industry. She promised watchdog journalism about powerful but opaque medical enterprises, and she took no salary. Reactivating the Oregon Health Forum, she again facilitated well-attended public discussions of issues.
In its early days, The Lund Report survived on donations and grants. By 2014, the value of the information she provided led to subscription fees that could support the work of professional journalists. A Health Hires job board charged for advertising full- and part-time position postings and internships. Then, as now, the general public signed up at no charge to read a limited number of the “premium” articles provided to paid subscribers. Closely held health care facts became available to any who were interested.
The Lund Report staff, with Diane as editor-in-chief, continued to uncover unsavory health care business practices. She wrote articles each week and supervised and edited the work of freelance writers. The newsletter uncovered corporate fraud, revealed checkered pasts of bureaucrats, disclosed profit-driven practices among nonprofit health care entities, and publicized bloated salaries and bonuses awarded to health care leaders. The Forum’s weekly email alerts reached 7,000 people interested in Oregon and SW Washington health care issues, filling a gap left by the area’s shrinking newspaper coverage.
In 2017, she stepped down from the news reporting side, hiring seasoned reporters to carry on the work. She remained on the Board of Directors and gradually transitioned to emeritus status. She said of her work, “My goal has always been to bring clarity to what is taking place at the time, and to have a publication that would reach decision makers.”
Diane’s daughter, Elissa, lives in Carlsbad, California, with three children, Mila, David and Benjamin, and their father, Will.
Diane and Michael met in 1992 at a Jewish fundraiser and were married in 1994. Michael has three children, Lynne, Adam and Andrea, and six grandchildren. Diane’s love of adventure has taken her and Michael to over 70 countries from Southeast Asia to the Far East, Europe, and the Americas. She made it up to Everest basecamp on her own, showing her true grit and determination and overcoming a broken pelvis on a trip to Ethiopia.
Diane was truly an amazing woman who showed a love of life and travel with an indomitable spirit and fortitude.
This republished story is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit opb.org/partnerships.