Bloomberg News

“We are making progress, we are on track and we will be ready,” Gary Cohen, director of the Department of Health and Human Services consumer information division, told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing in Washington.

UnitedHealth Group Inc., the biggest U.S. medical insurer, is set to face claims that it failed to properly oversee a Las Vegas doctor who gave colonoscopy patients hepatitis C by mishandling the anesthetic Propofol.

A study last year had already indicated that patients were more likely to die in overcrowded emergency rooms, which could well become more commonplace as millions more get insured under PPACA.

Organizations including Berkshire Hathaway, BP Capital and Viacom all have leaders near the age of the man who decided he’s aging too rapidly to lead the Catholic Church. “It’s probably a good idea to reassess one’s ability to be in positions of power at that time,” says one expert.

Speed, convenience and the growing doctor shortage have patients flocking to ultra-convenient clinics, but not those at the world’s largest retailer: critics say Wal-Mart clinics are poorly promoted and too slow with prescriptions.

WellPoint Inc., the second-biggest U.S. health insurer, has picked a new CEO from outside the industry who says his work with hospitals and doctors will help smooth the insurer’s path in a time of change.

For the first time, the Obama administration is rejecting a state’s request to set up its own exchange under PPACA. At root is a disagreement between Mississippi’s Republican governor, who wants nothing to do with the law, and its insurance commissioner, who is also a Republican, but would rather the state run its own marketplace.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is preparing to retire, extended benefits such as child care, commissary privileges and transportation to military bases to same-sex partners of service members.

Tenet Healthcare Corp., the third largest U.S. hospital chain, keeps an eye on Medicare patients after they’re released. This isn’t just about professional integrity. Tenet has a financial stake in their well-being.

Cigna Corp., the third biggest health insurer by market value, raised its forecast for 2013 profit and said fourth-quarter earnings rose 49%, boosted by rising enrollment in its Medicare plans for seniors.

Companies ramped up hiring toward the end of 2012, a sign they’re finding it difficult to make do with the existing staff as sales improve. A pickup in consumer and business spending last quarter also will help to improve the job market this year.

Men who took 1,000 milligrams or more of calcium supplements a day had a 20% higher chance of dying from cardiovascular disease then those who didn’t take the supplements, according to new research; women had no additional risk.

As many as 8 million people will lose health care plans now offered through their employers, the Congressional Budget Office now estimates, up from a previous estimate of 5 million.

The number of Americans projected to gain insurance from the U.S. health care law is eroding, by at least 5 million people, as the Obama administration struggles to implement the $1.3 trillion overhaul amid Republican opposition.

Almost 40% of boomers are obese, compared with 29% a generation ago. Fifty-two percent said they got no regular physical activity versus 17% of their parents, according to the study released this week.

Baby boomers have more chronic illness and disability than their parents, as their sedentary habits and expanding girth offset the modern medicine that enables them to live longer, a study said.

The government said the rules announced last week would broaden the types of organizations eligible for an exemption from the birth-control mandate and make it easier for them to escape it.

Payments from drugmakers and medical device companies to doctors must be disclosed to the U.S. government beginning next March, regulators said.

Third biggest U.S. health insurer says the share of health care premiums it spends on patient care rose to 84.1% from 80.7% a year earlier. The insurer finished 2012 with 18.2 million members in its medical plans, an increase of 64,000 over the third quarter.

The researchers in England followed almost 45,000 adults, one-third of them vegetarians, for an average of 11 1/2 years and accounted for factors such as their age, whether they smoked, alcohol consumption, physical activity, education and socio-economic background.