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Drugmakers have been criticized for cost-sharing assistance programs that encourage patients to use brand-name drugs instead of cheaper, generic alternatives. The federal government has frowned on the help, but there are expensive medicines for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis that don't have generic equivalents.

Because North Carolina didn't expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, many low-income people who could otherwise benefit from the law don't. But there are often ways to bump up their incomes just enough to help them qualify for subsidized coverage.

Medicare spends about $20 billion each year on implanted medical devices. Nearly half of the total goes for orthopedic surgery. Yet doctors who were surveyed about implant prices could only accurately estimate the prices about one-fifth of the time.

If you buy insurance through a marketplace and you lose your job, it will pay to let the marketplace know. The reduction in income while you're unemployed could make you eligible for a bigger tax credit to help pay for coverage.

Hospitals in Maryland would be financially rewarded for keeping people healthy and out of the hospital. The arrangement, once unimaginable, could serve as a model for containing hospital costs elsewhere in the country.

Supplemental insurance plans shield millions of people from Medicare's deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. Some health economists have criticized these so-called Medigap plans for inflating health care spending by encouraging people to seek care they don't really need.

Even for people who get insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act, there are potential trouble spots. Those include expensive prescription drugs, specialist care and services such as physical therapy that typically require a course of treatment over weeks or months.

Some 5,000 uninsured people go into O'Connor Hospital's emergency department each year. A staffer tasked with helping them find coverage says 70 percent of the people she sees could now get it — if they follow through and apply.

About 75,000 patients a year die from infections they caught in the hospital. A Kaiser Health News analysis finds that nearly 700 hospitals across the nation have higher than expected infection rates.

To contain costs, some plans are capping how much they will pay for certain routine procedures, such as knee replacements. Patients can be on the hook for anything over the limit.