By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Massachusetts House leaders released a major proposal to control health care costs Friday, saying their plan would save families thousands of dollars over the next five years. The bill would require the medical industry to cut the rate of growth of health spending in half, to about 3.7

percent, mirroring the overall growth in the Massachusetts economy. The legislation also takes aim at the extreme variation in prices that hospitals charge insurers and government payers for similar services.

By Gideon Gil, Globe Staff

Brigham and Women’s Hospital announced Thursday that it has appointed a new chairman of neurosurgery. Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca will lead the neurosurgery department at both the Brigham and Faulkner Hospital, beginning August 1. He has been chair of neurological surgery at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center since 2004, but he trained in Boston, completing his residency in neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

Legislative leaders said Thursday that they will release comprehensive plans to control health care costs in Massachusetts within the next week. The House has scheduled a press conference Friday afternoon at 2:30, during which House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Representative Steven Walsh, a Lynn Democrat who co-chairs the Health Care Financing Committee, will discuss details of the House proposal. The Senate plans to release its cost-control plan on Wednesday.

By Dr. Kiran Gupta, Globe Correspondent

In medical school, soon-to-be physicians are frequently required to take courses dedicated to improving their communication skills so that they are prepared to navigate emotional discussions about illness. I remember practicing giving bad news to an actor who was paid to evaluate my empathy and compassion. While such training is valuable, nothing prepared me for situations in which physicians might feel hostility from patients or their families, or even be threatened with legal action.

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

A 2008 federal regulation that denied payments to hospitals if patients contracted certain infections while under their care bolstered attention to preventing those problems, but also shifted focus and resources away from halting other infections, a new study finds. The study, based on a survey of infection specialists at 317 US hospitals, found that 81 percent reported increased attention to preventing two specific infections targeted by federal regulators: catheter-associated urinary tract infections and central line-associated bloodstream infections.

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff

Eleven Massachusetts community health centers, which serve patients in some of the state’s poorest neighborhoods, will receive a total of nearly $34 million in grants under the federal health care law, officials announced Tuesday. The money, which is estimated to help the centers provide care to roughly 42,500 new patients, is also aimed at helping the centers expand their facilities and improve existing services, officials said.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Boston Medical Center will participate in a national program to test whether providing frail seniors with health care in their homes keeps them out of hospitals or nursing homes and saves money. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to track 10,000 Medicare enrollees, including 200 in Boston, who receive house calls from doctors and nurses, and it will share potential savings with the 16 participating organizations.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

To qualify for federal money to put toward development of electronic health records, hospitals must show that their systems can communicate with those of public health agencies. Those that are plugged into the state’s Electronic Reporting System, used to transmit information to the state about more than 80 infectious diseases, can now check that box, said Kevin Cranston, director of the Department of Public Health Bureau of Infectious Disease. The state received a key certification from the Obama administration.

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

It seems clear that holding down health care costs will save consumers and employers money over the long run, but now a new study estimates exactly how much.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

At a conference attended by dozens of doctors, the message of one panel discussion might have seemed out of place: Medical malpractice is not a primary culprit in the rising cost of medical care.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The governor’s proposal for slowing rising health care costs has been moved, unchanged, from a joint legislative committee to the Senate budget committee, reports Kyle Cheney of the State House News Service. The bill could be considered by the full Senate by mid-May, Senate President Therese Murray told Cheney.

By Elizabeth Comeau and Globe Staff

White Coat Notes blogger, Chelsea Conaboy is live tweeting from a conference on the topic of unnecessary, avoidable care delivery in the US health care system. Organized by the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation and the New America Foundation, and co-hosted by the Institute of Medicine, the two-day conference is happening Cambridge. Dr. Harvey Fineberg, President of the Institute of Medicine, is delivering the keynote address.

By D.C. Denison and Globe Staff

Steward Health Care System, parent company of Carney Hospital in Dorchester, named a new president for the hospital Tuesday: Andrew Davis, the former chief executive of the Davis Regional Medical Center in Statesville, N.C. Davis will start at Carney on May 7.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Lost or stolen personal data involving more than 3 million records has been reported in Massachusetts over the past four years, a new report from the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation said. Of about 1,800 data breaches cited in the report, 214 were in the health care industry, the Globe’s Jenn Abelson reported. The health care-related breaches affected about 983,746 personal records, more than those affected by breaches in the financial services industry.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

For many doctors, the initial reaction to being accused of making a medical error “is to get angry,” said Dr. J. David Blaha, a professor and orthopedic surgeon at the University of Michigan Health System. It’s what happens next that matters, he said. Often, hospitals and doctors put up walls, cutting off communication from patients. The University of Michigan created a system a decade ago, now being adopted by seven Massachusetts hospitals, aimed at changing that.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Yale School of Medicine welcomed newly accepted -- but not yet decided -- students to a “second look” weekend with this video, likening medical school to the “Hunger Games” of the ever-popular young adult series written by Suzanne Collins.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

The 2010 rate of blood stream infections associated with use of a “central line,” a tube used to deliver medications and other fluids and take certain cardiovascular measurements, dropped in Massachusetts and 20 other states, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national data also indicate that Massachusetts is not the only state to see a higher-than-expected rate of surgical infections among women who had a vaginal hysterectomy.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

A spokesman for Steward Health Care said on Friday that Carney Hospital President Bill Walczak was resigning from his role after just 14 months on the job. Not so, according to Walczak. “I did not resign from the Carney Hospital,’’ Walczak told the Globe’s Rob Weisman on Wednesday. He did not elaborate. Walczak was the long-time leader of the nonprofit Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester and was recruited by Steward last year to lead Carney.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

A report published last week by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said the annual increase in cost to the state attributable to the 2006 health law was about $91 million.

Josh Archambault of the Pioneer Institute took issue with that figure, saying should be closer to $369 million. But, Michael Widmer, president of the taxpayers foundation, said the two figures represent different things. Archambault’s method was, “in effect, loading the dice,” he said.

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Liz Kowalczyk writes in today’s Globe that seven Massachusetts hospitals, including two in Boston, are piloting a program aimed at resolving potential medical malpractice cases before they become lawsuits. The program, which would encourage doctors and nurses to disclose mistakes and apologize for them, is expected to curb costly litigation and improve relationship between providers and patients.