Chris Anderson

The Commonwealth Fund reports that employer-sponsored family health insurance plans increased by 41 percent from 2003 to 2009 - more than three times the rate of increase for personal income in that same time frame.

Doctors face significant reimbursement cuts unless Congress take action.

With the relationship between President Barack Obama's administration and the health insurance industry turning sour as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act made its way through Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius turned up the heat on insurers' rate hikes.

2010 was a tough year to be a state Medicaid director.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has launched a "shared incentive" payment model with four of Minnesota's largest care systems. The model modifies fee-for-service payments to reward quality of care and innovative methods of delivering cost-effective care.

Two Kentucky-based companies, Humana and Norton Healthcare, are launching the region's first commercial Accountable Care Organization.

Congress on Monday agreed to a reprieve of scheduled 23 percent Medicare pay cuts to physicians that would have started December 1. The measure means reimbursement levels will go untouched until January 1.

Pittsburgh-based Highmark will offer a childhood obesity prevention benefit to its members starting in 2011 in collaboration with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a program that is expected to help about half a million children.

With two Congressmen-elect already on record as saying they will decline their government health plan when they are seated next month, pressure is building for others who openly campaigned against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to follow suit.

A report from the International Federation of Health Plans on common medical services and procedures in 12 countries shows some cost as much as four times more in the United States than in other developed nations.