In a report that generally augured well for medical care, the death rate in Pennsylvania’s hospitals from things such as heart attack fell to 4.2 percent in 2008, down from 5.1 percent in 2002, according to a Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council report released Thursday.

Massachusetts residents aged 18- to 64-years-old are far more likely than peers in other states to have health insurance, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates.

Norton Healthcare Inc. will sever its remaining business relationship with insurer Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Kentucky, effective Jan. 1, the hospital company said today in a letter addressed to employers and insurance brokers.

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s inclusion of nonprofit health insurance cooperatives in its health-reform bill drew mixed reviews from Maryland health officials Wednesday.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives Friday passed a bill that would allow Philadelphia to close a $700 million budget gap by deferring pension payments and temporarily raising the sales tax in the city from 7 percent to 8 percent, according to the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus.

Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives is expected to vote Friday on a measure that would allow Philadelphia to temporarily raise the sales tax in the city and defer pension payments, the Philadelphia Inquirer was reporting.