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Some companies are adding drug dispensaries to their on-site health clinics. Others are offering concierge services that deliver drugs right to workers' desks. The companies hope to improve workers' compliance with doctors' orders by making it easier to get prescriptions filled.

More than 40 states have systems in place to monitor prescription drugs, but budget strains and unwieldy databases have hindered their use by doctors and pharmacists to curb drug abuse.

How some insurers pay for treatments means that cancer pills can wind up costing a patient more than an IV. Some states have passed laws to make sure that patients don't have to pay more to take pills. But those laws don't apply to Medicare.

A voluntary approach to flu vaccination of health care workers has fallen short. To protect patients, vaccination should be mandatory, consumer and business groups said in Washington. They back a requirement for annual vaccination of all health workers with only limited exemptions.

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.

Women spend $1 billion more annually on their health premiums than they would if they were men. But under the recently upheld health law, insurers won't be allowed to charge higher rates based on gender starting in 2014.

Unlike Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and other conservative states in the South, Mississippi is well on its way to having an insurance exchange ready for operation by the 2014 deadline laid out by the health overhaul law.

Hospitalized patients are going home sooner and sicker than ever before. And without clear and comprehensive instructions about what to do after a hospital stay, they may wind up back in the hospital, or worse. That's where a checklist can help.

Oregon created a simple two-page form that has helped people exert control over their care at the end of life. A statewide database that contains the information is providing insight into what people prefer.

Midwives specifically trained in delivery outside hospitals can practice legally in 27 states. In the remaining states, mothers-to-be planning for a home birth will probably be attended by a certified nurse-midwife.