health and human services

Cigarettes have only gotten more and more expensive over the past decade as nearly every state has pushed taxes upward. But the habit hits our wallets in a series of small purchases: Are smokers really aware of quite how much they spend a year? We hit the streets of Manhattan to ask.

The government recouped a staggering $4 billion in fiscal 2010 that was stolen from federal health care programs, the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services announced Monday -- the highest annual amount ever. More than half of the fraud money recovered came from drug companies.

With most U.S. hospitals and doctors' offices still mired in paper, new federal standards for electronic records seek to resolve this mess -- although they're not without controversy.

President Obama declared the H1N1 flu outbreak a national emergency last weekend. While U.S. officials insist the move is not a reaction to new developments but a preventive measure, it comes just as the vaccine shortage has been making headlines, with the Centers for Disease Control "frustrated"...