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Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed the state's health insurance exchange into law Wednesday after a legislative committee reconciled regulatory differences between a set of bills passed last week.

In a study published online Wednesday in JAMA Surgery, researchers calculated that during 2009, six technologically advanced and minimally-invasive surgical procedures contributed a cost savings and workplace value of more than $11 billion.

High numbers of merger and acquisition deals but lower volume in the senior housing and care industry is a trend that will continue in 2013, a panel of senior housing experts said during a webcast held in late February.

After several occasionally fractious public hearings on nonprofit tax exemptions, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is challenging the tax exempt status of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the largest healthcare provider and employer in western Pennsylvania.

According to a new research study published in the March issue of Health Affairs, hospice enrollment saves money for Medicare and improves care quality for Medicare beneficiaries with a number of different lengths of services.

A recent survey of physicians in the U.S. by consulting company Deloitte shows that most are worried that the future of the medical profession may be in jeopardy and that the overall performance of the healthcare system in this country is "suboptimal."

A new report released Wednesday examines the health and well-being of people living in nearly every county in the United States, and finds that rates of premature deaths are at the lowest level in 20 years. Nevertheless, people in the unhealthiest counties are dying too early at more than twice the rates of those in the healthiest counties, according to the 2013 Health Rankings, published by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

Providers will drive the overhaul of the health system when they focus on the value of their care delivery to produce measurably better outcomes for patients.

The 333 hospitals taking part in Premier healthcare alliance's QUEST collaborative saved 92,000 lives and $9.1 billion over four-and-a-half years, Premier announced on March 19, and if the practices employed in the collaborative were replicated nationwide, Premier officials say, hospitals potentially could save 950,000 lives and approximately $93 billion.

State governors who say expanding the Medicaid program as spelled out in the Affordable Care Act is bad for business, may in fact be hurting business owners more by refusing to expand the insurance program for the poor.