Highmark Health honors employeesPITTSBURGH — Megan Livingston of Mars was one of eight Western Pennsylvania Highmark Health employees honored Wednesday by the company with the Jefferson Award for Public Service.She was honored for outstanding volunteer work, and a donation by the company was given to a nonprofit organization of her choice.Highmark Health is one of 25 U.S. Organizations that are Jefferson Awards Champions, annually recognizing employees who work to improve life in their communities.

Consumer spending inches up in MarchWASHINGTON — U.S. consumers boosted their spending by a tiny amount in March as purchases of nondurable goods such as clothing offset a big fall in spending on autos and other long-lasting items.Spending edged up 0.1 percent last month after a 0.2 percent rise in February, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Incomes rose a solid 0.4 percent.Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, has been lackluster for the past four months

Abbott to buy St. Jude MedicalAbbott Laboratories will spend $19.3 billion to buy St. Jude Medical Inc. in a cash-stock deal that aims to strengthen the medical device maker’s stake in cardiovascular care.The combined company will offer devices in nearly every area of cardiovascular care, competing directly with industry leaders Medtronic Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp. It noted that the acquisition will blend St. Jude’s pacemaker and implantable defibrillator business with Abbott’s focus on artery-opening stents and heart repair products.

FDA reconsiders painkiller training WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is reconsidering whether doctors who prescribe painkillers like OxyContin should be required to take safety training courses, according to federal documents released Friday.A panel of FDA advisers meets next week to review risk-management plans put in place nearly four years ago to reduce misuse and abuse of long-acting painkillers, powerful opioid drugs at the center of a national wave of abuse and death.