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People hoping to save a few dollars by choosing insurance with low upfront costs may be losing out. Hospitals and other health care providers sometimes fail to apply discounts when individuals, rather than insurers, are paying the bills.

Under the health care overhaul, many people who find their job-based health coverage too expensive can get help buying insurance through exchanges. But rules just finalized by the Internal Revenue Service will limit who is eligible for a subsidy and could leave some families shut out.

If there's a settlement or judgment against another party in a liability case, Medicare is entitled to reimbursement for the money it spent on a beneficiary's medical care. The process is complex and prone to delays. A new law is expected to fix the problems.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says there's not enough evidence to know if routine testing for cognitive impairment in older people helps or hurts. So patients have to decide on their own.

Federal, state and local governments, along with many private companies, are struggling to get their finances in order, and many are looking at one major cost: pensions. Many pensions in the U.S. aren't sustainable, economist Dambisa Moyo says, and they've made American corporations uncompetitive.

Even if a hospital is in your health plan's network, some doctors who work there may not be. That discrepancy can lead to surprising out-of-network charges. But appealing those charges can often get health plans to reduce the bills.

Hospitals that treat many poor people face challenges in managing their care. The problem is compounded by the fact that the same hospitals often have fewer resources at their disposal.

Some self-employed people are discovering a helpful little loophole in insurance plans. By bringing their spouse or another person on board as an employee, insurers may have to issue them health coverage.

As the writer's strike continues into the fall TV season, NPR's Scott Simon imagines a fresh crop of reality show substitutes for regular programming.

Britain has its first men's Wimbledon champion in 77 years, and a royal baby is on the way. There's been a surge of good news this summer in the United Kingdom.