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With employers looking to hold the line on health costs and a persistent shortfall in public information about physician quality, choosing the right doctor is no easy task for most consumers.

Physicians who pack on the pounds discuss weight loss less frequently with obese patients than doctors who have normal weights, a study finds. Overweight and obese physicians expressed greater confidence in prescribing weight-loss drugs than other doctors.

The green light comes despite questions about whether the proton beam treatment is more effective than less expensive options. The two centers, about three miles apart, will compete for patients in the Washington area.

Instead of waiting for individual hospitals to apply to build proton centers, a health planning council solicited proposals, promising to favor collaborative approaches. A five-hospital group that teamed with a private company got the go-ahead to build in New York City.

You're in luck, if you live in the District of Columbia or one of the 21 states that have put in place specialists to handle questions and complaints private health insurance. Otherwise the maze could prove daunting.

The Affordable Care Act sets annual limits on the amount that people will owe out of pocket for prescription drugs starting in 2014. But sick people in some plans won't get relief until the following year because the federal government is giving certain health plans extra time to comply.

It's the first disclosure of prices in the nation's most populous state for individual health insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act. The menu of affordable options surprised some consumer advocates and analysts who had been expecting premiums to be much higher.

Rewards to policyholders for claims that don't meet the annual deductible can be a boon for healthy people. But the approach might not pass the smell test in 2014 when the federal health law bans discriminating against people based on their health status.

Bariatric surgery has a good track record in combating the health risks of obesity. But new health exchanges in Mississippi and other Southern states won't pay for it, even though those states have some of the nation's highest rates of obesity.

Inherited mutations of some genes can contribute to breast cancer risk. There are tests for a range of these uncommon mutations, but whether an insurer will pay for them varies, too.