A new push for accountable care organizations -- called ACOs -- is driving a consolidation trend among health care companies that's increasingly being felt in Minnesota, the Pioneer Press reports. One recent example: the combination of HealthPartners and Park Nicollet health systems into one of the state's largest nonprofit health companies,

Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth, the nation's largest health insurer, told the Associated Press it plans to keep and extend some provisions of the federal health-reform legislation regardless of whether the law is overturned. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling later this month on the law's constitutionality.

The federal health care overhaul was aimed at providing affordable health insurance to millions of Americans who lack it. But a low-income group falls into a kind of no-man's land for affordable coverage, and Minnesota officials are considering an optional program to help fill this gap. But there is a huge unknown: cost.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will be in the Twin Cities on the two-year anniversary of the landmark health care legislation. Sebelius will highlight insurance policies that she says discriminate against women. Meanwhile, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is using the law's anniversary in a fundraising appeal built around her goal of repealing it.

Nationwide, insurance companies are paying out $1 billion to consumers this month, including $8.9 million from five Minnesota insurance companies. Bloomington-based HealthPartners will provide the most at $6.8 million. The rebates are required by the federal Affordable Care Act, which set a limit on the share of premium revenue that health insurers could dedicate to administration, marketing and profit.