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February 20, 2013 Florida's expansion of Medicaid will provide health insurance coverage to more than a million people. Florida will also become the seventh state headed by a Republican to agree to take the federal offer to provide Medicaid to all state residents with incomes up to about $15,000 a year.

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February 20, 2013 KHNEssential benefit requirements apply mainly to individual and small group plans. The federal requirements also affect benefits provided to people newly eligible for Medicaid coverage. Now, for instance, we know that insurers won't be allowed to can't charge consumers a copay for a screening colonoscopy, even if a polyp is removed.

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February 20, 2013 Can for-profit insurers save money while providing proper care for some of the sickest patients? For years, Arizona, a state that doesn't often champion government programs, has been enlisting private companies to manage the care for people eligible for both Medicare and Medicare.

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February 20, 2013 CPRHospitals are partnering with pharmacies to keep discharged patients from returning too soon. Walgreens, for one, is helping hospitals to manage patients' medications after they go home.

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February 19, 2013 Federal programs, including many that provide health care, could soon be hit with deep cuts to their budgets. Agencies won't close, but services ranging from food inspections to vaccinations could be cut back. And the health care industry warns that half a million jobs could be lost within a year.

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February 19, 2013 KHNThe federal law overhauling health care requires that contraceptives be made available to insured women without any out-of-pocket costs to them. Many family planning clinics aren't yet set up to accommodate women under those terms.

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February 18, 2013 Cancer patients often have to deal with side effects from their treatments. They may need speech therapy or help rebuilding their strength. The STAR program is helping break down the barriers to rehabilitation services.

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February 15, 2013 The fallout from Cold War bomb tests is shedding light on why the Achilles tendon heals so poorly after injuries. By looking at carbon-14, scientists have found that tendon tissue in people who were alive during the tests hasn't changed much since they were youngsters.

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February 15, 2013 "We should think of doctors the same way we think of shirts," an economist says. "If we can get doctors at a lower cost from elsewhere in the world then we could save enormous amounts of money."

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February 15, 2013 The notion that being a little overweight could help people in old age is being challenged. Some of the studies in support of the so-called obesity paradox excluded people who lived in institutions, like nursing homes, or were too sick to participate, a critic says.

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February 12, 2013 KHNIn some cases, "observation" may be no more than a billing designation that allows hospitals to move patients out of crowded emergency departments. Hospitals also may use them to avoid potential insurance reimbursement problems.

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February 11, 2013 When researchers asked hospitals how much a total hip replacement would cost a 62-year-old woman paying cash, a surprising number couldn't or wouldn't say. Health care could learn something from the car industry about working with consumers, critics say.

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February 8, 2013 MPBMississippi would have been the only Republican-led state in the South with a health insurance exchange not run by the federal government. Now Mississippi has another distinction: It's the only state to have its exchange plan turned down by the federal government.

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