The Obama administration has given the go-ahead for insurers and employers to use a new cost-control strategy that puts a hard dollar limit on what health plans pay for some expensive procedures, such as knee and hip replacements. Some experts worry that such a move would surprise patients who pick more expensive hospitals. The cost difference would leave them with big medical bills that they'd have to pay themselves. That could undercut key financial protections in President Barack Obama's health care law that apply not just to the new health insurance exchanges, but to most job-based coverage as well.
