Today's Globe: Kennedy and Medicaid waiver, Caritas referrals, medical soldiers, BMC settlement

Senator Edward M. Kennedy (left), who is beginning treatment in his battle with brain cancer, made a major push on a key issue for Massachusetts yesterday, placing a flurry of phone calls to top Bush administration officials in a bid to make sure the state continues receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid money.

Caritas Christi Health Care is dropping a longstanding strategy in which doctors at its five community hospitals have been pressured to refer as many patients as possible to St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, the flagship of the six-hospital chain owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, according to its new chief executive, Dr. Ralph de la Torre (left).

They bandaged gunshot wounds and performed emergency surgery on blast victims. So it's no surprise the contingent of medical soldiers returning from Iraq yesterday yearned for nothing more than family time and some New England staples.

Attorney General Martha Coakley reached a settlement with Boston Medical Center over allegations the hospital and its health plan improperly used confidential health information "to conduct deceptive marketing of its health plan" (second item).