About this project

Last update: August 2, 2008 - 10:04 PM

About this project

"Your Choice/Health Care's New Era" is an occasional series on sweeping changes underway in health care that place complex decisions in the hands of consumers.

Previous installments of the series are available online at www.startribune.com/healthchoice.

SHOPPING ONLINE FOR HEALTH CARE

JAN. 27

Carol.com's creators want to do for health care what Travelocity did for airline tickets -- drive down costs by handing consumers an online medical marketplace.

deciding less is more

MARCH 16

The emerging specialty of palliative care is revolutionizing how chronically ill patients and their families are involved in treatment decisions. It is also focusing scrutiny on whether doctors and hospitals should be paid differently.

Watch one family's story of how they used palliative care for their 11-year-old daughter, Amber, at startribune.com/healthchoice.

HEALTH CARE'S COMING 401(K) PLAN

APRIL 6

Health savings accounts (HSAs), mainly tried by those buying individual insurance, are about to become as ubiquitous in health care as the 401(k) is in retirement planning. But just as employers, eager to hold down costs, are poised to shift to the system, it's become clear premiums among those using HSAs in the individual market are rising.

Coaching the chronically ill

MAY 25

Minnesota is overhauling the way depression -- and potentially a wide range of chronic ailments -- is treated. Care managers will coach patients to make the right decisions about daily choices that affect their health. The hope is that myriad personal decisions early in a disease can prevent costly complications later in life.

are consumers ready for this?

TODAY

As health care providers, insurers and government shift more and more health care decisions to consumers, there's a big question hanging in the air: Are consumers capable of making these kinds of decisions? Or are they increasingly bewildered by the explosion of choices?

Recent Health + Wellness stories

Niacin shrinks artery plaque; Merck's Zetia does not and may carry risks, new study finds - August 2, 2008

Niacin shrinks artery plaque; Merck's Zetia does not and may carry risks, new study finds - A new study raises fresh concerns about Zetia and its cousin, Vytorin — drugs still taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, despite questions raised last year about how well they work. More