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The new health law will expand an experimental approach to caring for the elderly at home.

For an extra fee, you can get a doctor or nurse practitioner to make a house call to check on a sick kid. The services can save a trip to the emergency room for problems that crop up after hours.

Some employers have concluded that employees enrolled in high-deductible health plans that are linked to a health savings account can't be given the same price break on workplace clinic services that their coworkers in regular PPOs and HMOs receive.

Even if a hospital is in your health plan's network, some doctors who work there may not be. That discrepancy can lead to surprising out-of-network charges. But appealing those charges can often get health plans to reduce the bills.

To boost enrollment in high-risk plans, the federal government will pay insurance agents a commission to sell the policies. Premiums will be cut up to 40 percent, too

Consumers in nine states expect to receive millions in rebates from their health insurers on this year's premiums because insurers did not hit a spending target for medical care. But consumer advocates say most insurers should be able to meet the spending rule.

A hospital that may charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat a dying patient generally won't charge the family a penny to do an autopsy to figure out what caused their patient's death.

Under new rules just issued by the federal government, insurers seeking rate increases of 10 percent or more will face more scrutiny starting in September. The change comes as insurers have reported solid profits.

New laws and Medicare rules call on hospitals to report infections. Some, like Pacific Hospital in California, have already managed to bring rates way down. Pacific's efforts have caught the attention of competitors and potential customers. And they've become a source of pride for its employees.

Researchers are finding that hoarding worsens with age. They're also learning that one of the best ways to help hoarders is to slowly build trust and organizing skills, rather than doing massive clean-outs.