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.

While medical students are busy learning how to provide care, their education does not seem to include much about the big picture of health care policy. A University of Minnesota doctor surveyed the state's medical students last year and found fewer than half could say they understood the basics of the country's new health care overhaul.

The private Commonwealth Fund ranked the St. Paul region the best out of more than 300 areas across the country. Rochester and Minneapolis were also among the top five. It's based on access to health care, prevention, treatment and healthy living. The Duluth region was placed 70th.