Health Insurance

Federal officials say loosening the regulation of association plans will give small businesses a more affordable health insurance option, but critics are wary.

The doctor and health care critic hopes to design a better system for more than 1 million workers at Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase. Data-driven solutions can improve outcomes, he says.

A surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Gawande is probably best known for his work writing about how to improve quality and lower costs in health care.

A severe allergic reaction sent a patient at night to an ER, which now wants to charge more than for a daytime visit. Billing specialists say the patient might have grounds for an appeal.

Some health plans are refusing to count the copayment assistance offered by drugmakers as part of a patient's deductible. That means some patients are paying thousands of dollars more out-of-pocket.

Patients may think their insurers are fighting on their behalf for the best prices. But saving patients money is often not their top priority. Just ask Michael Frank about his hip surgery.

Under the health insurer's policy, Anthem can retroactively restrict or deny coverage if the company decides that a visit to the emergency room could have been avoided.

Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, will exclude hospitals from insurance networks if they don't reduce their numbers of C-sections, back scans and opioid prescriptions.

Up to 16 million people in the U.S. have undiagnosed or uncorrected vision errors that could be helped by glasses, contact lenses or surgery. But many health plans don't include routine vision care.