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State insurance regulators have defined one of the thorniest provisions of the new health overhaul law: the requirement that insurers spend at least 80 percent of revenue on direct medical care.

Two recent California efforts to reign in hospital prices - or at least reduce pricing disparities between hospital providers in the state for the same procedure - have been stymied, thanks to the hospital lobby.

Voters in Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma will face ballot measures Tuesday challenging a provision in the federal health care law requiring almost everyone to have health insurance. Critics of the measures say they could complicate health care issues within the states.

Oncologists would receive a set fee for certain cancers under this plan, which is being tested at five participating practices. Proponents say that this new strategy aims to identify the best medicines and cut back on profits doctors make by dispensing in-office chemotherapy drugs.

Starting next year, Medicare will pay for all sorts of preventive services and recipients won't have to shell out a dime. But workouts, aren't on the list.

A new analysis says that Social Security and Medicare will be bolstered by the new health law because lower insurance costs for employers will mean higher pay for workers. And that will mean higher tax receipts. Skeptics disagree.

In an unusual August session, House Democrats pushed through an aid package that will boost state Medicaid budgets. But, the lawmakers whiffed on extending a popular insurance subsidy for the unemployed.

Doctors are leaving private practices in large numbers and going to work for hospitals. Last year, hospitals hired half of the new doctors just out of medical school. Hospital administrators say having more doctors improves care.

As part of the new health law, officials published information on 4,000 individual insurance plans today. A health insurance trade group says the site is misleading. A government spokeswoman says that it holds insurance companies more accountable.

Federal requirements that are part of the new health law will make insurance appeals easier and more uniform.