HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Death Panels Return

Five years after it exploded into a political conflagration over “death panels,” the issue of paying doctors to talk to patients about end-of-life care is making a comeback, and such sessions may be covered for the 50 million Americans on Medicare as early as next year. Medicare may begin covering end-of-life discussions next year if it approves a recent request from the American Medical Association, the country’s largest association of physicians and medical students. One of the A.M.A.’s roles is to create billing codes for medical services, codes used by doctors, hospitals and insurers. It recently created codes for end-of-life conversations and submitted them to Medicare.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Mother’s Attentiveness to Baby’s Babbling Speeds Language

Those of you who have young infants will be familiar with the babbling sounds they like to make. But how do you respond? A new study from The University of Iowa and Indiana University published, in the journal Infancy, suggests that how parents react to their infants' prattling may influence their language development. Infants whose parents are attentive to their babbling sounds have greater advancement in language development, according to researchers. The study found that when mothers made an effort to respond to what they believed their infant was trying to say, their baby showed greater advancement in language development. In detail, they made more advanced consonant-vowel sounds, meaning their babbling started to sound more like words. In addition, these infants began to direct more of their babbling toward their mothers as time elapsed. The infants were using vocalizations in a communicative way, in a sense, because they learned they are communicative.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Decisive Marriages Fare Better

New research shows that how thoughtfully couples make decisions can have a lasting effect on the quality of their romantic relationships. Couples who are decisive before marriage — intentionally defining their relationships, living together and planning a wedding — appear to have better marriages than couples who simply let inertia carry them through major transitions. “Sliding through life-altering transitions leads to a worse outcome,” said Scott Stanley, a research professor at the University of Denver and co-author of the new study.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Nursing Homes Game Medicare Stars

The New York Times has found that many top-ranked nursing homes have been given a seal of approval that is based on incomplete information and that can seriously mislead consumers, investors and others about conditions at the homes. The Medicare ratings, which have become the gold standard across the industry, are based in large part on self-reported data by the nursing homes that the government does not verify. Only one of the three criteria used to determine the star ratings — the results of annual health inspections — relies on assessments from independent reviewers. The other measures — staff levels and quality statistics — are reported by the nursing homes and accepted by Medicare, with limited exceptions, at face value.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Shock the Monkey

Would you rather: a) Spend some time alone with your thoughts; or b) Receive an electrical shock from a 9-volt battery? A recent study found that, left alone in a room for 15 minutes with a shock-administering device, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to zap themselves rather than do nothing. The average number of shocks was about three, though one man jolted himself 190 times, or every 4.8 seconds. “I suspect our results say more about the limits of the human mind than they do about contemporary society,” said Timothy Wilson, the lead author.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Ice Bucket Challenge Donations Top $40M

With everyone from former President George W. Bush to Justin Bieber and Shakira posting online videos of themselves dumping buckets of ice over their heads in the name of charity, the viral “Ice Bucket Challenge” continues to dominate social media and has now raised more than $40 million for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Good Neighbors Good for Your Heart

There's no place like home, it would seem, with regard to cardiovascular health. New research suggests that living in an inclusive neighborhood with helpful and friendly neighbors could reduce the risk of heart attack. A study conducted by a team from the University of Michigan has been published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, examining the potential health-enhancing effects that the positive characteristics of local neighborhoods could have on the people living there. The authors say there has been a growing body of research finding that positive neighborhood characteristics, such as perceived social cohesion, are associated with positive health outcomes: better health behaviors, mental health and physical health.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Errors Improve Learning Speed

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, MD, think they have discovered why people learn an identical task faster on subsequent attempts. Publishing their findings in Science Express, the team says our memories of error are the key to faster learning. The researchers note that when people perform a task - such as opening a door - their brains make comparisons of how the door moved with how they expected the door to move. This information is calculated in a way that allows the person to perform the task more efficiently next time. The researchers observed that the participants responded more quickly to small errors that pushed them consistently in one direction than to larger errors that were less consistent.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Health Benefits of Bok Choy

Bok choy, also known as pak choi or Chinese white cabbage, was originally cultivated in China thousands of years ago and since then has spread to cuisines all over the world. Bok choy belongs to the cruciferous vegetable family, which also includes kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collard greens, rutabaga and turnips. These nutrition powerhouses supply loads of nutrients for little calories. If you are trying to eat healthier, cruciferous vegetables like bok choy should be at the very top of your grocery list.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Obamacare Premiums Slated to Rise By 7.5%

Premiums on Obamacare's health insurance exchanges will rise by an average of 7.5% next year, according to a new analysis. Data compiled by the Health Research Institute at PricewaterhouseCoopers found modest changes in premiums for 27 states and the District of Columbia, with the increases mostly falling short of dire predictions for Obamacare’s second year.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Top-of-Head Concussions More Severe

As we head into the start of the new school year, many young people will begin signing up for the football team. Though team sports are a great way for kids to boost their self-esteem and increase physical activity, there are certain risks involved with contact sports, including concussions. Now, a recent study from the American Academy of Pediatrics investigates how the location of impact could affect concussion severity. The new study suggests concussions that arise from impacts to the top of the head are more likely to make young athletes lose consciousness. Prior to this study, very little research had focused on how location of impact on the head could yield different concussion outcomes. The data revealed that more football players whose concussions resulted from top-of-head impacts lost consciousness than those whose impacts were located elsewhere on the head. In detail, 8% of players with top-of-head concussions experienced loss of consciousness, compared with only 3.5% of those with impacts on other areas.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Weekly Fish Wards off Dementia

Eating broiled or baked fish every week could ward off dementia later in life, according to the recent study. The research was conducted by investigators at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, who note that their study adds to increasing evidence that lifestyle factors could add to brain health later in life, perhaps even reducing risk of dementia.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Diagnose Narcissism with One Question

What extent do you agree with this statement: “I am a narcissist.” Scientists believe that this question could be all researchers need to make a quick and easy diagnosis of narcissism. Publishing their study in the journal PLOS ONE, the authors claim that understanding narcissism has implications for society that extend beyond any impact on the lives of individual narcissists."Narcissism is bad for society because people who are only thinking of themselves and their own interests are less helpful to others," say the researchers.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Sleep Apnea Does Not Cause Cancer

Previous research has linked sleep apnea to cancer progression. However, these studies included only a small number of participants, and there may have been some bias in their measurements. Obstructive sleep apnea is a breathing disorder in which the airways repeatedly close while the patient is sleeping, causing fragmented sleep that increases risk for a variety of other health problems. About 18 million Americans have sleep apnea. Some previous studies have linked sleep apnea to cancer progression. However, these studies included only a small number of participants, and there may have been some bias in their measurements. The new study looked at 10,149 sleep apnea patients who took part in a sleep study between 1994 and 2010, and researchers cross-referenced that information with health administrative databases from 1991-2013.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Chili Peppers Reduce Cancer

Chili Peppers Reduce Cancer. Good news for spicy food lovers; the active ingredient found in chili peppers - capsaicin - could reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, according to a new study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Researchers found that capsaicin - the ingredient that gives chili peppers their heat - activated a pain receptor in mice that reduced tumor development in their gut. The research team, including senior author Dr. Eyal Raz, professor of medicine at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine, found that capsaicin activated a pain receptor called TRPV1 in mice, which reduced tumor development in their gut.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Laughter is the Best Medicine.

We are all familiar with the saying, "laughter is the best medicine." And this motto may ring true when it comes to tackling age-related memory loss. A new study from Loma Linda University in California finds that humor may reduce brain damage caused by the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn, improves memory. The research team, led by Dr. Gurinder Singh Bains, recently presented their findings at the Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego. Since it is well known that laughter can be a stress reliever, the research team wanted to determine whether humor may reduce brain damage caused by cortisol. They found that watching funny videos reduced cortisol levels and boosted memory performance.