HomeCare Editors’ Top 5: Week of November 2

Thousands Who Didn’t File Tax Returns May Lose Subsidies
Tens of thousands of people with modest incomes are at risk of losing health insurance subsidies in January because they did not file income tax returns, federal officials and consumer advocates say. (Robert Pear/New York Times)

Costs for Dementia Care Far Exceeding Other Diseases
Three diseases, leading killers of Americans, often involve long periods of decline before death. Two of them — heart disease and cancer — usually require expensive drugs, surgeries and hospitalizations. The third, dementia, has no effective treatments to slow its course. (Gina Kolata/New York Times)

Walgreens to Buy Rival Rite Aid
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy Rite Aid Corp. for about $9.4 billion, combining two of the nation’s largest drugstore chains as they bulk up to better compete in the rapidly changing healthcare industry. (James Peltz and Samantha Masunaga/LA Times)

Exchanges Face Sign-Up Challenges
On fishing piers in Maine, inside public libraries in rural Iowa and at insurer-run retail stores in Minnesota, the hunt for uninsured Americans will reignite Sunday when Obamacare’s third open enrollment season starts. (Phil Galewitz/Kaiser Health News)

Home Health Payments to Take $260 Million Hit
Medicare is still planning to make big reductions to home health agency payments, though they may not be as drastic as it originally seemed. (Mary Kate Nelson/Home Health Care News)