A healthcare model in coal country

A hospital system in Pennsylvania's coal country has become a national poster child for the kind of carefully coordinated, data-driven health care that experts say one day could right the nation's troubled medical system, providing better care at lower costs. Geisinger Health System, whose decades of investment in technology and integration have made it a pioneer in the use of electronic medical records and other data, dominates most of the rural markets it serves. The system focuses to an unusual degree on avoiding unnecessary procedures, in part because it also runs an insurance company that covers many of its patients. [Subscription Required]