Kaiser Health News
In North Carolina, Brookdale Home Health Charlotte was one of just two agencies out of more than 170 in the state to earn five stars.
A detailed analysis of anesthesiologists younger than 36 who worked in group practices found wage disparities existed in 2012, even when taking into account age, experience, hours worked and type of employer.
In 2013, nearly 750,000 Coloradans were uninsured. Obamacare cut those numbers in half, to a level that was once considered unreachable.
Even when accounting for factors such as experience, age and research, men are 15 percentage points more likely to have the rank of full professor - the senior-most position on a tenure track - than are women.
Payment initiatives and increasing patient expectations are slowly forcing changes, encouraging doctors to be better listeners and more sensitive.
Employers again are sharply focused on employee wellness, and some are raising the bar to qualify for program incentives.
One of the main ways the Affordable Care Act seeks to reduce health care costs is by encouraging doctors, hospitals and other health care providers to form networks that coordinate patient care and become eligible for bonuses when they deliver that care more efficiently.
In a stark departure from the past, the vast majority of the country's medical schools now integrate discussions of cost, value and effectiveness into their curricula.
The fate of many other health programs, from the National Institutes of Health to efforts to reduce teen pregnancy, hang in the balance as well, as lawmakers decide whether and how to fund the government after the current fiscal year expires Sept. 30.
Ownership by a hospital "dramatically increases" odds that a doctor will admit patients there instead of another, nearby hospital, researchers found.