health care quality

A state law now requires insurers to reveal prices of their medical tests, and the variation is amazing, bargain hunters say. An MRI of the back is $614 at one place, $1,800 at another.

Fewer Medicare patients are returning to hospitals within a month of discharge. But half the hospitals in 29 states and the District of Columbia will be penalized for failing to do a better job.

Residents of an apartment building in Camden, N.J., racked up more than $1 million a year in hospital admissions and trips to the ER over about a decade. In response, a community group opened a doctor's office on the ground floor. But at first, residents weren't as eager to go as doctors had hoped.

The nation's biggest insurer is starting to dole out bonuses and penalties to nearly 3,000 hospitals as it ties almost $1 billion in payments to the quality of care provided to patients.