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With the Affordable Care Act’s third open enrollment period to begin in less than two weeks, federal officials are racing to fix new features of HealthCare.gov that are supposed to make it easy for consumers to find insurance plans that cover their doctors and prescription drugs. (Pear, 10/19)

With sign-up season starting in less than two weeks, the Obama administration indicated on Monday that some long-awaited upgrades to the government's health insurance website could take more time before they're customer-ready. At issue is a new doctor look-up tool for HealthCare.gov, as well as another feature that would allow consumers to find out whether a particular health plan covers their prescription drugs. Up to now, digging out that information has required additional steps. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/20)

When Billy Sewell began offering health insurance this year to 600 service workers at the Golden Corral restaurants that he owns, he wondered nervously how many would buy it. Adding hundreds of employees to his plan would cost him more than $1 million — a hit he wasn’t sure his low-margin business could afford. His actual costs, though, turned out to be far smaller than he had feared. So far, only two people have signed up. (Cowley, 10/19)

For years executives at Brocade Communications Systems Inc. were treated to a full day of physical exams and assessments in the high-end, spa-like setting of Stanford University’s executive medicine program at a cost of several thousands of dollars per executive. But the firm ended the perk in 2013, in an effort to eliminate inequalities in its employee benefits package and avoid taxes and penalties associated with the Affordable Care Act. (Chasan, 10/19)

The state's online marketplace for the uninsured estimates 150,000 will enroll in private health plans in 2016, up from 115,000 this year, though the marketing budget is down and it might be a tougher sell. "It's a semi-aggressive number, but it's what we're shooting for," said Andrew Ratner, the exchange's director of marketing and strategic initiatives, during the last exchange board meeting before open enrollment, which runs from Nov.1 to Jan. 31. (Cohn, 10/19)

A major provider of health insurance in Kansas is pulling out of the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Two companies under the Aetna corporate umbrella — Coventry Health & Life Insurance Co. and Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc. — are withdrawing from the marketplace just two weeks before the Nov. 1 start of the next open enrollment period. Coventry merged with Aetna in 2013. (McLean, 10/19)

An analysis of health insurance data shows more than 16,000 Kentucky children obtained health insurance during the first year of the Affordable Care Act. The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the State Health Access Data Assistance Center say the Kentucky's uninsured rate among children dropped 4.3 percent during the first year of the federal Affordable Care Act. Their analysis revealed more than 10 percent of the private insurance plans purchased on the state health exchange were for children. (10/19)