A federal audit found that Duluth-based Essentia Health overbilled Medicare by more than $865,000, MPR reports. The findings indicate Medicare was billed $3.18 for every dollar Essentia was owed. The company says the error was caused by an incorrect calculation in their computer system and has refunded the overpayments.

Minnesota's latest effort to fight abuse of heroin and other opiates brings together a range of government departments and health care providers. The health, public safety, human services, and education departments are all involved. So are doctors, since many addictions grow out of the painkillers they prescribe.

Lawmakers there could approve a bill during a special session this week to authorize a health insurance exchange system, one of the requirements of federal health reform. The idea is to create a website to help consumers compare the costs and benefits of different policies.

Now that the federal health care overhaul has been mostly upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, Minnesota officials are working fast to design a online health insurance marketplace for people to enter basic information, learn whether they qualify for subsidies, compare the options and buy a policy.

Approximately 3,100 Minnesotans have lost state-provided health insurance after a special audit of public employees and their dependents by the Minnesota Management and Budget Agency. Some relatives of employees lost coverage because they were ineligible, but hundreds may have been dropped simply because they missed the deadline or submitted incomplete or improper documentation.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services announced Thursday that the state has begun implementing a 2009 law with a goal of extending MinnesotaCare health care coverage to 16,000 uninsured children. Under the plan, parents whose incomes are below a certain level will no longer have to pay premiums for their children on MinnesotaCare.

Aaron Schaffhausen's attorney filed an appeal to stop mental health workers from visiting the defendant at his jail cell. Defense attorney John Kucinski says the visits violate Schaffhausen's constitutional rights and could compromise his insanity defense. Schaffhausen is accused of killing his three young daughters at their River Falls home in July.