A new approach seeks to reduce medical costs without restricting needed care, The New York Times reports. Under the “accountable care” model, insurers offer financial incentives to doctors and hospitals to cut costs instead of sending patients for more services. The idea is to provide less care, but not worse care. One example of keeping costs down in Chicago is a family practice that calls patients with heart ailments on stormy winter evenings to ask them not to shovel snow—a strenuous activity that lands many such clients in the hospital.

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