Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>When it comes to talking about America’s rising health care costs, many fingers have been pointed at pharmaceutical companies, malpractice lawyers, health insurers and patients themselves. Dr. Neel Shah wants another group to start thinking about its own role in driving up health costs - rank and file doctors. Physicians simply aren’t trained to think about how the treatment decisions they make affect what patients are going to pay.</p>

<p>Are mini-med health plans really such a bad option for low-wage workers? Answers and more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>Despite threats that skimpy Medicare payments would force doctors to drop seniors from their patient rolls, physicians still are seeing them in droves. Plus more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

Which state is having the worst flu season so far? Answers and more in our Daily Briefing.

It's getting confusing again with a new study on the benefits of mammograms. Our Daily Briefing sorts it all out.

Could this year get any worse for Johnson & Johnson? The company recalls 12 million bottles of the Mylanta acid, and more from our Daily Briefing.

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p>

<p>Jordan Rau of Kaiser Health News and Sarah Varney of KQED Public Radio recently collaborated on a project examining what some hospitals’ newfound market power means for health insurance costs – and your pocketbook. You can find Varney’s piece <a href="http://www.npr.org/2010/11/18/131410569/big-hospital-chains-use-clout-t…; and Rau’s story <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/November/19/sutter-hospita…;

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p> <p><strong>Quote of the Day:</strong> “To ghostwrite an entire textbook is a new level of chutzpah,” former FDA Commissioner David Kessler tells the New York Times’ Duff Wilson in a story about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/business/30drug.html?_r=2&amp;scp=1&a… drug-maker’s heavy influence on a medical textbook</a>.</p>

Did 87 California hospitals really go three years without any major patient care mistakes? Answers and more in our Daily Briefing.