Big deal. Can United HealthCare make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?

On the surface, United HealthCare Corp.'s purchase of The MetraHealth Cos. two months ago looks like a great deal. But United's grand strategy is fraught with obstacles, and the move seems sure to heat up the competition and consolidation taking place in health care coverage.

Transforming vision into achievement--great comebacks.

Leadership is the quality that distinguishes a Great Comeback from an impressive financial turnaround, and the organizations we selected as winners of our Fifth Annual Great Comebacks Contest can boast CEOs with an exceptional vision of what health care can and should be. Find out what Michael Boyd, Craig Melin and Leon Malmud have in common, and how they and their management teams brought their hospitals into a new era.

Rehabbing Medicare. Is managed care a cure-all or just a crutch?

Money, or the prospect of saving it, is what's rallying many in Congress around supporting managed care as Medicare's magic bullet. And financial, as well as community, incentives are certainly helping to push Medicare managed care programs forward in the delivery system. But will those programs accomplish everything their advocates expect?

Street wise. Wall Street: where health care is suddenly hot.

With market-driven reform sweeping the health care field, Wall Street is betting on those hospital systems that are revamping themselves for cost-effectiveness and demonstrated value to payers. Analysts are encouraged by such markers as overcapacity shrinkage, full-asset mergers and hospital swaps. And they're positively bullish on Columbia/HCA.