Bloomberg News

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.

Employees can receive government tax credits to buy insurance for their families if the coverage their employers offer would cost more than 9.5% of their income, the IRS said Wednesday in final regulations. However, that calculation will be based on the cost of single coverage, not family coverage, which is more expensive and would give more people access to the credits.

“Too few adults are taking advantage of protection from vaccines, leaving themselves and those around them at greater risk for vaccine-preventable diseases,” says one government health expert.

Doctors are increasingly taking on more patients to compensate for cuts in payments from health insurers, researchers say, and PPACA is expected to increase the volume.

Oklahoma opposed a request by the U.S. that a judge dismiss the state’s lawsuit challenging President Obama’s 2010 health-care reform legislation.

The recommendations released today are the first to help govern the burgeoning field of brain imaging and may increase the use of the practice to improve care for the 5 million Americans affected with Alzheimer’s.