Broker Regulation

In an era when everything from health care policy to immigration divides us more than it unites us, when the Internet allows us to tear apart our fellow Americans' virtual throats from the comfort of our keyboards, what does a holiday like Independence Day mean?

Massachusetts has the nation's highest rate of residents with health insurance. Visits to emergency rooms are beginning to ease. More residents are getting cancer screenings and more women are making prenatal doctors' visits. Still, one of the biggest challenges for the state lies ahead: reining in spiraling costs.

Federal health regulators are proposing a new system to track millions of medical devices used in the U.S., an effort which they say will help protect patients by catching problematic implants earlier.

Federal prosecutors in North Carolina NextCare Inc. will pay $10 million to settle allegations it submitted false and inflated bills to taxpayer-supported benefit programs.

The U.S. Department of Labor is distributing 90 grants of more than $20 million, which are being awarded through the DOLs Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program, for job training and support services for more than 11,000 veterans.

It's on his to-do list, but U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the odds are against repealing the health care law championed by President Barack Obama.