Two of the new realities in the business of health care

Bad debt and bad debt. Two of the themes in two health care stories in the Star Tribune today. (Neither of the two links below this paragraph will take you to the complete story. The paper is reserving some content for the hard copy newspaper first - subject of an editor's note in the paper today.)

Laid-off Minnesotans and those with jobs but without insurance have ballooned the number of individual health insurance plans that insurers are selling.

And hospitals are using new billing tactics to battle rising bad debt - tactics that surprise some who don't associate this with health care.

Meantime, congratulations to the Star Tribune team of Josephine Marcotty, Chen May Yee, Warren Wolfe and Maura Lerner for winning a National Headliner Award for their project, "Your Choice: Health Care's New Era."