HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: This week Aetna and WellPoint will follow UnitedHealth Group in reporting their second-quarter earnings. UnitedHealth, which announced its results last week, set the bar high for its fellow companies by reporting a 31 percent increase in profits for the three months that ended June 30.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: One of the hottest concepts to emerge from the discussions about how best to overhaul the nation’s health care system is accountable care organizations. The idea is to encourage groups of doctors or hospitals to work together to oversee medical care so quality improves and costs go down. Having captured the fancy of Washington, the organizations are even a part of the new health care law.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: A steep drop-off in private funds illustrates the competition under way for money as public health priorities shift. Shortly after the first lady kicked off the “Let’s Move” program, the administration awarded more funds to fight obesity than tobacco through two big new money sources for preventive health. The funds, totaling $1.15 billion, came from economic stimulus and health care reform legislation. They still provided more than $200 million for tobacco-use prevention, but much more to grapple with obesity.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: Two weeks after taking office, Dr. Donald Berwick the new chief of CMS is struggling to tamp down a furor over past statements in which he discussed the rationing of health care and expressed affection for the British health care system. He is finding his ability to do his job clouded by the circumstances of his appointment, with many Republicans in open revolt over President Obama’s decision to place him in the post without a Senate confirmation vote.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: The new health care law requires health insurers to spend at least 80% of every dollar collected in premiums on the welfare of patients. The calculation of the medical-loss ratio is crucial to insurance companies, because the law requires them to refund money to consumers if they spend too much on administrative costs. An intense effort is now under way by insurance companies to retool this provision and state regulators are only now deciding what precisely it means.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: Lucky Charms. Froot Loops. Cocoa Pebbles. A frozen dinner with corn dog and fries. McDonald’s Happy Meals have all been identified by food companies as healthy choices they can advertise to children under a 3-year-old initiative by the food industry to fight childhood obesity. Now an effort by the federal government to forge tougher advertising standards that favor more healthful products has become stalled amid industry opposition and deep divisions among regulators.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: As insurers try to steer more patients to doctors deemed less expensive or judged to provide better care, physicians and medical organizations are questioning the accuracy of these evaluations. In a sharply worded letter sent Monday to the nation’s largest health insurance companies, the AMA and 47 medical societies called on the insurers to make public how they assessed doctors’ performance and to allow the insurers’ methods to be reviewed by independent parties.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued a new set of medical guidelines, which state that most women who have had Caesarean sections in the past can safely give birth the normal way later. In recent years hospitals, doctors and insurers have been refusing to let them even try, insisting on repeat Caesareans instead.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: Michelle Obama has enlisted Major League Baseball and its players’ association for a new public service advertising campaign to promote her program to eliminate childhood obesity. The campaign consists of 30 television and 30 radio spots, customized for each of the league’s teams. Other versions of television and radio ads will be distributed nationally in markets with no local team.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: Less than four months after Congress approved historic health care reform legislation, the Obama administration has been making good progress in bringing some early benefits to fruition and issuing rules to guide the reform process. Despite all of the critics’ hype and scare tactics, some polls suggest that the public perception of reform is slowly improving.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: 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.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: The nation’s drug makers have eliminated nearly 35,000 positions in the first half of this year, second only to government in cutting jobs, according to a new report by Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a Chicago-based outplacement consulting firm. Still, the industry faces the prospect of more job losses to support the bottom line as patents expire on prominent drugs within the next year.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: President Obama gets high marks, even from some Republicans, for the way he has begun carrying out the new health care law in the 100 days since it was signed. And a new poll suggests a small increase in favorable views of the measure since May. This week the administration unveiled a Web site, HealthCare.gov, where consumers can obtain information about public and private health insurance options in their states.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: In Virginia, the federal government faced off in open court Thursday against the first of the 21 states that are seeking to invalidate the law by challenging the requirement that most Americans obtain insurance. Their central argument is that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution cannot be interpreted to allow government penalties on Americans for refusing to buy a product.

HC Reform Update by Mark Sanna: A new 10% tax on indoor UV tanning services goes into effect today. The tanning tax is one of the tax provisions funding the national health care reform bill that passed in March. It's estimated the tax will raise $2.7 billion over the next 10 years. The tax does not apply to spray tans or tanning products. The Indoor Tanning Association is currently building support to repeal the new tax.