Editors’ Top Five Week of March 5, 2018

Never Too Late to Operate? Surgery Near End of Life Is Common, Costly
Nearly 1 in 3 Medicare patients undergo an operation in their final year of life. (Liz Szabo/Kaiser Health News)

Rethinking Rural Health Solutions to Save Patients and Communities
It’s a quickly changing landscape as more rural hospitals close, and some health policy analysts say it’s time communities made some hard decisions—starting with completely changing the health care structure in small towns. (Adrienne St. Clair/NPR Health Shots)

Assuming Risk Key to Medicare Savings Under New Payment Models
Accountable care organizations (ACOs) only generate savings for the government if they accept risk, according to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Alex Spanko/Skilled Nursing News)

20 States Sue Federal Government to Abolish Obamacare
Twenty states sued the federal government on Monday to end the Affordable Care Act, claiming the repeal of the individual mandate’s tax penalty rendered the law unconstitutional. (Erica Teichert/Modern Healthcare)

Failing to Tell Patients That Nothing Will Help May Only Make Them Suffer More
Why is it so hard to tell chronically ill patients that further treatment is futile—that it might erode their quality of life without making a difference in their life expectancy? (Samuel Harrington/Washington Post)