OFTEN, when the government wants you to do something, it makes you pay if you don’t. That would seem to be the case with Obamacare, which penalizes companies for not providing health care. But in that penalty, there could be a paradoxical result: dropping health coverage could save companies...

The Issue…In the United States, per capita spending on health care is more than double that in most other high-income, industrialized countries, including Australia, Germany, Japan, and Sweden. Yet performance on many health outcome measures in the U.S. lags these lower-spending nations. A New England Journal of Medicine Perspective...

Many hospitals and health systems across the country are beginning to take steps out of their old comfort zone — caring for patients within their own four walls — to start initiatives to provide accountable care and manage and improve the health of their populations. Carroll Hospital Center in...

Like hospital leaders everywhere, the people running Valley Medical Center in Renton, Wash., talk frequently about the need to control soaring medical costs. “We are working to reduce the overall cost of health care and to transform health care delivery,” Lisa Jensen, chairwoman of the hospital’s board of trustees,...