Today's Globe: health plan rates, Emerson finances, computerized prescriptions, Atrius chief, choking fad, eating science

To hold down state costs, officials are considering raising premiums as much as 14 percent and doubling some copayments for the subsidized insurance program that is at the heart of healthcare reform.

Emerson Hospital of Concord is conducting an investigation into an accounting error that caused it to overstate its 2006 financial results. The disclosure comes as the hospital's finances appear to be deteriorating.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts said yesterday that it will require all the state's hospitals to fully install a computerized medication ordering system within four years or face a loss of lucrative payouts from an incentive program promoting good-quality care.

After less than two years as chief executive, Debra A. Geihsler (left) resigned yesterday from Atrius Health, the large physicians group, after clashing with the board of trustees over management style and mission.

At least 82 youths have died from what some have called the "choking game," according to the first government count of fatalities from the tragic fad.

How did eating become a science rather than an art, Ellen Goodman asks on the op-ed page. How did food become conflated with medicine? We now have shelves full of boxes with bragging rights promising better eating through chemistry. Meanwhile, our uncertainty is growing as quickly as our waistlines.