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Healthcare spending on pets has been growing strongly, and it offers some insight into what's happening in the U.S. human health system, Stanford University's Liran Einav and Atul Gupta and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Amy Finkelstein write. (Smialek, 9/27)

The list of preventive services that women can receive without paying anything out of pocket under the health law could grow if proposed recommendations by a group of mostly medical providers are adopted by federal officials later this year. The draft recommendations, which are open for public comment until Sept. 30, update the eight recommended preventive services for women. (Andrews, 9/27)

For the 12th straight year, Kaiser Permanente is Georgia’s top-rated commercial health plan, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance... Kaiser’s 4.5 score for its HMO was followed by 3.5 for these plans: Aetna HMO/Point of Service (POS), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia HMO/POS, Cigna PPO, Connecticut General PPO, and UnitedHealthcare PPO. The Kaiser Medicare plan in Georgia was followed by an Aetna plan scoring 4.0. (Miller, 9/26)

Providence Health & Services and Premera Blue Cross have ironed out a new health-insurance contract, averting a disruption that could have affected more than 500,000 people in Washington. (Aleccia, 9/26)