Michelle Andrews

Bronze plans provide the least generous coverage of the four tiers on insurance marketplaces, paying 60 percent of benefits, on average, compared with 70 percent for the more popular silver plans.

Dr. Abraham Nussbaum, author of a book examining the drive toward standardized quality measures and checklists, says he fears medicine is becoming just another job and not the calling it should be.

A third of patients with HIV and lung cancer failed to receive treatment for the cancer, compared with 14 percent of those who were HIV-negative. It's one example among many of disparate treatment.

Some insurers continue to sell coverage to individuals on the open market even after deciding to exit the health law's marketplaces.

The expansion of Medicaid and continued enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program have boosted the proportion of eligible kids with health coverage to 91 percent, a study finds.

The shortages for hospital emergency rooms have persisted even after Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration more power in 2012 to respond when drug supplies are low.

When someone's been hurt and gets cash as part of a legal decision, health plans routinely demand to be reimbursed for medical costs they covered. But a Supreme Court ruling may hinder that strategy.

Complaints from patient groups and increased regulatory oversight appear to be leading to changes in the way some marketplace health plans cover expensive drugs.

Although many people thought the federal health law would reduce the need for free clinics, low-income people with high deductibles and copays still frequent the clinics for routine care.

Federal law requires most insurers to provide parity between mental health and medical benefits, but that doesn't necessarily mean that regular counseling will come with a low copayment.

Doctors and other health providers are slowly adding patients' self-reports to the tests and exams used to make decisions about care.

A survey finds that the number of workers who say they would give up some health benefits to get a pay raise has increased to 20 percent from 10 percent in 2012.

Two academics suggest that loans financed by the private sector could be one way to help patients cover the cost of expensive, curative pharmaceuticals. Think mortgages.

Current guidelines require patients to specify who gets information about their care. But advocates of change say that restriction is out of step with the world of electronic medical records.

How coinsurance hurts: If a drug costs $200, a patient may owe 20 percent of the cost, or $40, instead of a flat copayment of $20. The higher the cost of the drug, the bigger the coinsurance bite.

The Internal Revenue Service will evenly divvy up the amount divorced or legally separated spouses owe if they have to repay an insurance tax credit — unless they agree to a different arrangement.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says there isn't enough evidence to know whether vision screening given by primary care doctors benefits patients.

As people get older, their health care goals may shift from living as long as possible to maintaining a good quality of life: quality over quantity.

In many cases, the medical treatment older people receive often doesn't reflect this change in priorities.

A wide-ranging report from the Dartmouth Atlas ...

Less than half of young men have heard of emergency contraception, a recent study found, even though it's available over the counter at drug stores and is effective at preventing pregnancy after sex.

The study, published in the March issue of Journal of Adolescent Health, analyzed survey responses by ...

A few years ago, when a young woman delivered her baby at Alleghany Memorial Hospital in Sparta, N.C., it was in the middle of a Valentine's Day ice storm and the mountain roads out of town were impassable. The delivery was routine, but the baby girl had trouble breathing because ...