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Verifying that a patient has paid for coverage under the Affordable Care Act can take hours. But if doctors' offices don't check, they can get stuck with the bill.

Drugmakers have been criticized for cost-sharing assistance programs that encourage patients to use brand-name drugs instead of cheaper, generic alternatives. The federal government has frowned on the help, but there are expensive medicines for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis that don't have generic equivalents.

The insurance pool for people with expensive pre-existing conditions will stay open until the end of March, after another extension by the federal government. Starting this year, the Affordable Care Act bars insurers from rejecting people because of health problems, but they may need more time than originally thought to sign up for coverage.

If a couple divorces, each person's eligibility for insurance-related tax credits will generally be based on his or her own annual income. The former spouse's income won't be counted, even if the couple filed taxes jointly the previous year.

Medicare spends about $20 billion each year on implanted medical devices. Nearly half of the total goes for orthopedic surgery. Yet doctors who were surveyed about implant prices could only accurately estimate the prices about one-fifth of the time.

Hospitals in Maryland would be financially rewarded for keeping people healthy and out of the hospital. The arrangement, once unimaginable, could serve as a model for containing hospital costs elsewhere in the country.

Supplemental insurance plans shield millions of people from Medicare's deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. Some health economists have criticized these so-called Medigap plans for inflating health care spending by encouraging people to seek care they don't really need.

If you buy insurance through a marketplace and you lose your job, it will pay to let the marketplace know. The reduction in income while you're unemployed could make you eligible for a bigger tax credit to help pay for coverage.

Some 5,000 uninsured people go into O'Connor Hospital's emergency department each year. A staffer tasked with helping them find coverage says 70 percent of the people she sees could now get it — if they follow through and apply.

Even for people who get insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act, there are potential trouble spots. Those include expensive prescription drugs, specialist care and services such as physical therapy that typically require a course of treatment over weeks or months.