More than 70 percent of Americans believe drug prices are unreasonable and nearly 25 percent have trouble paying for their prescription medications, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released on Aug. 20.

St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. closed its pediatric cardiothoracic surgery program after a CNN investigation revealed the program's high mortality rate. The Sun Sentinel reported that St. Mary's blamed "inaccurate media reports" for why it closed the program.

Abiomed, Inc. (Nasdaq:ABMD), a leading provider of breakthrough heart support technologies, announced today that it has entered into a corporate partnership with Fenway Park and will be bringing its Impella Mobile Learning Lab to the historic baseball stadium tomorrow.

A recent analysis painted an optimistic view on Medicare, a program that is divisive among politicians, healthcare professionals and the general public.

Pfizer will not be manufacturing an over-the-counter version of atorvastatin (Lipitor) after the company terminated its clinical trial program, Bloomberg reports. Since losing patent protection in 2011, sales of atorvastatin have decreased from more than $10 billion per year to $2.06 billion in 2014.

For the first time in six years, health spending in the U.S. is projected to have increased more than five percent in 2014, mostly due to an expansion of insurance coverage. Prescription drug spending also played a role, growing 12.6 percent last year as costly hepatitis C medications and new treatments for cancer and multiple sclerosis became available.

An analysis of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries found all-cause mortality rates, hospitalization rates and expenditures per beneficiary decreased from 1999 to 2013. During that same time period, patients who were hospitalized also experienced better survival rates in later years and total hospitalizations and inpatient costs declined in the last six months of their lives, according to lead researcher Harlan Krumholz, MD.

Since open enrollment for the health insurance exchanges began in October 2013, millions of more Americans have received coverage and their access to care and self-reported health have improved, according to an analysis of telephone surveys conducted in the past two years.