"On a stormy evening this spring, nurses at [a Chicago doctor's] family practice were on the phone with patients with heart ailments, asking them not to shovel snow. The idea was to keep them out of the hospital, and that effort -- combined with dozens more like it -- is starting to make a difference: across the city, doctors are providing less, but not worse, health care.... This approach is one small part of a growing effort by providers to hold down costs without restricting needed care."

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