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Longer reads: How to choose a hospital; Empowered patients cost more; The 'war on sleep'

Hospital marketing has reached a frenzy. It is nearly impossible to drive around metropolitan areas in the U.S. without being barraged by billboards trumpeting hospitals' cutting-edge technology, luxurious facilities, or the lives of patients they have saved.

31 May 2013

Medicaid expansion: Arizona foes look to voter referendum, brewing fight in N.H.

Meanwhile, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown seeks to expand Medi-Cal and New Hampshire lawmakers set up a fight over the expansion.

31 May 2013

New rule allows employers to increase the use of wellness incentives

The final regulation gives businesses more leeway to tie workers' premium costs to efforts to get them to use more healthy behaviors, such as increasing exercise or quitting smoking.

31 May 2013

Republicans double down on IRS role in carrying out health law

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is weighing in. Meanwhile, witnesses at an IRS hearing Wednesday questioned how the health law's individual mandate will be enforced.

31 May 2013

Competition, narrow networks key to exchange premiums

California Healthline reports that among the reasons for Covered California's lower-than-expected insurance rates are plans with narrow networks that exclude some of the state's best-known providers, while the Washington Post wonders how competition can work in New Hampshire's online marketplace where only one plan may sell policies.

31 May 2013

Study finds health law is helping protect young adults from high health bills

The RAND Corp. research finds that the law's provision allowing children up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents' health plans resulted in $147 million in hospital bills to be covered by insurance.

31 May 2013

Current policies for small businesses, individuals may not meet health law standards

Many people who buy their own health insurance could get surprises in the mail this fall: cancellation notices because their current policies aren't up to the basic standards of President Barack Obama's health care law. They, and some small businesses, will have to find replacement plans - and that has some state insurance officials worried about consumer confusion (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/29).

31 May 2013

First Edition: May 30, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations include stories about a new study on immigrants' financial impact on the Medicare program and a new federal regulation on wellness programs.

30 May 2013

Thousands of veterans affected by states' rejection of Medicaid expansion

An estimated quarter-million former service members would have been eligible for health coverage under the joint state-federal program but their states have opted not to participate in the expansion envisioned by the federal health law. Meanwhile in Iowa, hospitals were helpful in forging a compromise on the issue.

30 May 2013

New study finds growing disparities in health behaviors among less-educated white women

Less-educated white women were increasingly more likely to die than their better-educated peers from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, according to a new study, which found that growing disparities in economic circumstances and health behaviors-particularly employment status and smoking habits-across education levels accounted for an important part of the widening mortality gap.

30 May 2013

Calif. docs worry state psych hospital staffing shortage could harm care

Some California doctors worry staffing shortages at state psychiatric hospitals are harming patient care.

30 May 2013

Wis. insurers cautious about new online marketplaces

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports on insurers' wariness about how business will work on these new marketplaces, which are being set up as part of the federal health law.

30 May 2013

Cancer: The No. 1 health concern among middle-income Americans

Cancer is the No. 1 health concern among our country's middle-income Americans, according to a new study released by Washington National Institute for Wellness Solutions.

29 May 2013

First Edition: May 29, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations include a look at California's effort to expand health care and reports on the Supreme Court's announcement that stops Indiana from barring Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding.

29 May 2013

Viewpoints: 'Good news' on Calif. insurance rates; Battle against dementia needs stronger efforts; Dental care for the disabled

The Affordable Care Act, a k a Obamacare, goes fully into effect at the beginning of next year, and predictions of disaster are being heard far and wide. ... No doubt there will be problems, as there are with any large new government initiative, and in this case, we have the added complication that many Republican governors and legislators are doing all they can to sabotage reform. Yet important new evidence - especially from California, the law's most important test case - suggests that the real Obamacare shock will be one of unexpected success (Paul Krugman, 5/26).

29 May 2013

Partisan politics, public distrust thwart efforts to carry out health law

The New York Times reports that partisan gridlock will likely prevent Congress from making even small adjustments. Meanwhile, a CNN poll finds that a majority of Americans continue to oppose the measure, which adds to the Obama administration's challenge of selling it to the public.

29 May 2013

Medicare paying for an increasing number of 'functional' eye lifts

The public health insurance program for people over 65 typically does not cover cosmetic surgery, but for cases in which a patient's sagging eyelids significantly hinder their vision, it does pay to have them lifted.

29 May 2013

Insurance exchanges become health law opponents' latest target

Also in the news, the latest developments from California, Mississippi, Vermont, Kansas, Minnesota and New Hampshire regarding the law's online insurance marketplaces.

29 May 2013

Businesses brace for health law's coverage requirements, potential costs

Some large companies are scaling back generous health plans they have traditionally offered employees, even though the so-called 'Cadillac tax' on high-end plans doesn't take effect until 2018, while small firms are exploring early coverage renewals and self-insurance.

29 May 2013