Chiropractic Breakthrough

As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals. This could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.

Federal authorities said Friday that they had arrested dozens of suspects in five states on charges of defrauding Medicare of a total of $251 million. Several doctors and nurses were among those arrested in Miami, New York, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge, La., accused of billing Medicare for unnecessary equipment, physical therapy and H.I.V. treatments that patients typically never received. Ninety-four suspects were indicted, and the authorities said 36 people had been arrested as of Friday morning.

The White House on Wednesday issued new rules requiring health insurance companies to provide free coverage for dozens of screenings, laboratory tests and other types of preventive care. The rules will eliminate co-payments, deductibles and other charges for blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol tests; many cancer screenings; routine vaccinations; prenatal care; and regular wellness visits for infants and children. Other services that must be offered at no charge include counseling to help people stop smoking; screening and counseling for obesity; and tests for infection with the virus that causes AIDS. The rules apply to new health plans that begin coverage after Sept. 23 and to existing health plans that make significant changes after that date.

The federal government issued new rules Tuesday that will reward doctors for the “meaningful use” of electronic health records. Doctors will have to meet 15 specific requirements, plus 5 chosen from a list of 10 objectives. For example, doctors will have to use electronic systems to record patients’ sex, race, date of birth; their height, weight and blood pressure; their medications; and their smoking behavior. A doctor can receive up to $44,000 under Medicare and $63,750 under Medicaid. Starting in 2015, doctors will be subject to financial penalties if they are not using electronic health records.

The F.D.A. on Thursday is considering the first in a new generation of proposed diet pills. Analysts say Qnexa, from Vivus, is the front-runner in the $100 billion obesity market, if only because it is first to the F.D.A. Two other companies are in line for F.D.A. diet pill reviews later this year. But the field is fraught with safety issues.

Spending on postgraduate education for doctors declined for the second year in a row, as did biomedical industry support for the programs, according to a report from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. Commercial support declined to $856 million in 2009, from $1 billion and $1.2 billion the previous two years. Industry financing from drug and device companies has come under attack for perceived conflicts of interest.

The Obama administration is sending $250 checks to more than 300,000 older Americans who paid higher drug costs in the Medicare coverage gap known as the “doughnut hole” officials announced Thursday. The one-time, tax-free checks are the first tangible benefit of the health care package that became law this year.

The government is preparing to issue new rules that will make it substantially easier for veterans who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits, a change that could affect hundreds of thousands of veterans from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

On July 1, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would crack down on a devious tactic used by some pharmaceutical companies. The tactic, known as “pay for delay,” involves business deals in which the makers of patented brand-name drugs pay generic competitors to delay the introduction of cheaper alternatives. Now it will be up to the Senate to approve the bill.

According to Kevin Volpp, director of University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Health Incentives, even when other benefits were cut during the recession, companies continue to add wellness programs. Now, with health care reform ready to kick in, more employers are poised to dangle financial incentives and use creative measures to get their workers healthier by participating in corporate wellness programs.