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Nearly one in five Medicare beneficiaries is readmitted within a month, and a new effort under the Affordable Care Act wants to change that by penalizing hospitals with high readmission rates. But hospitals say it will be counterproductive.

Despite the popularity of crime dramas like CSI, few medical students go into forensic pathology. The Justice Department says they could be lured into the field with better financial incentives.

Only about a quarter of adults have advance directives in place. On the relatively infrequent occasions when people do sign advance directives, they're usually thinking about what they would want in a crisis rather than for a chronic illness.

Some self-employed people are discovering a helpful little loophole in insurance plans. By bringing their spouse or another person on board as an employee, insurers may have to issue them health coverage.

The bargains can be appealing for people who don't have insurance coverage for infertility treatments, which is to say most people. Only about 20 percent of companies covered pricey treatments like in vitro fertilization, a survey found.

The health law lays out a new and possibly less costly model to help health care providers care for patients and keep costs down. So just what are these Accountable Care Organizations and how would they work?

In several states, lawmakers are advancing bills that would make it illegal for state officials to put the federal health overhaul into place. Even if the bills become state laws, though, they would likely be found unconstitutional.

The new health law lets seniors get free wellness check ups, starting in 2011. But there are a lot of questions about whether they'll take advantage of them, or what role doctors will play in promoting them.

Babies born even a little shy of the full 39-week mark for gestation may still suffer health trouble, including breathing and feeding problems. A 2005 estimate put the U.S. cost of premature births at $26 billion.

Repeal of the health law is unlikely to succeed, but Republicans are setting their sights on some vulnerable provisions. If they succeed, it would affect the country's direction in health spending and coverage.