HEALTHCARE

Blunt, brash, brainy and occasionally self-mocking. Larry Summers, the White House economic adviser, is all of these things. In a career spanning academia, government and finance, he has rubbed some people the wrong way and infuriated others.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc offered a plan on Monday aimed at winning over union leaders and Chicago lawmakers in its attempt to open dozens of stores in the city over the next five years.

The survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a stable pattern over recent years of Americans without health insurance -- numbers used as the basis for battles over healthcare and health insurance reform.

FedEx Corp said on Wednesday that healthcare and pension costs will pinch profits in 2011, sending its shares down despite quarterly results that beat analysts' expectations.

President Barack Obama called on Republicans on Saturday to vote for a delay in cutting government Medicare insurance payments to doctors, taking aim at the opposition party in a renewed election-year push for his new healthcare law.

A bidder has agreed to pay $2.63 million for a steak lunch with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a charity auction held on eBay Inc's website.

A bidder offered to pay $1,500,100 for a steak lunch with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett as the annual charity auction on eBay Inc's website entered its final hours.

The high bid for a steak lunch with Warren Buffett has reached $900,100, with a little over a day to go in the annual charity auction.

Someone has bid $700,100 to dine with billionaire investor Warren Buffett in an annual charity auction, putting the bidding far ahead of last year's level.

U.S. healthcare IT firm Allscripts said Wednesday it was to buy rival Eclipsys in a $1.3 billion all-share deal, creating a leader in electronic healthcare records.

Concern over rising U.S. debt could force lawmakers to take another crack at reining in healthcare costs long before any promised savings from President Barack Obama's sweeping overhaul are realized.

Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada's provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system.

Last month's recall of Johnson & Johnson's liquid children's medicines provides just the latest evidence of what U.S. health regulators say are systemic quality problems at the healthcare company and its McNeil consumer unit.

Gentiva Health Services Inc agreed to buy Odyssey HealthCare Inc in a $1 billion cash deal, which could make it one of the top players in the U.S. home and hospice care market and spark more consolidation in the space.

Abbott Laboratories Inc agreed to acquire India's Piramal Healthcare's healthcare solutions business for an up-front payment of $2.12 billion, in a deal it said would make it the largest pharmaceuticals company in India.

Three out of four nursing homes admit that they cannot provide residents the quality of care and services required by law, based on the current public funding levels.

India - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the Government of Bihar to ensure better health facilities for the people in Bihar.

(Reuters) - The Obama administration has urged a court to reject an attempt to block a controversial new law overhauling the U.S. healthcare system, saying it was constitutional and any challenge was premature.

U.S. stocks capped their best three-day run in 10 months on Wednesday, lifted by technology and industrial shares after Spain unveiled an austerity plan that reassured investors Europe was addressing its fiscal ills.

NEW YORK - Doctors at a California children's hospital have found the first evidence that using an electronic system to communicate their orders may save lives.

(Reuters) - Americans are steadily losing confidence in their ability to get healthcare and pay for it, despite the passage of healthcare reform legislation, according to a survey published on Wednesday.