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The more oral sex someone has had, the greater their risk of getting oral cancers that grow in the middle part of the throat. Transmission of the human papillomavirus is the reason, a leading researcher says.

Patients often welcome palliative care once it is explained that it can be more than hospice care. Many doctors, on the other hand, are still slow to embrace the approach.

When the severity of patient sickness and special local expenses are taken into account, some areas marked by big Medicare outlays flip from profligate to average or even frugal, according to the calculations from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The federal health overhaul law imposed a variety of restrictions on flexible spending accounts as a way to boost government revenue. Now a backlash is brewing in Congress and bills to roll back some of the changes are getting traction.

A Maryland program to prevent hospital complications goes further than most, including those already under way in Medicare and new ones slated to begin next year under the health care overhaul law.

To boost the odds you'll stick with your medicines, try taking your pills when you do something else on a regular schedule, such as brushing your teeth. Signing up for automatic refills may also help.

Half a dozen states are considering changes in laws that would allow psychologists to prescribe medicines to treat mental illness. Shortages of psychiatrists in some areas and psychologists' success in New Mexico have given the approach traction, despite the objections of medical doctors.

To reduce the odds a patient will have to return to the hospital, some health systems are trying to do a better job coordinating care. Starting in 2012, the federal health law will penalize hospitals for excess readmissions for some conditions.

Only about a quarter of adults have advance directives in place. On the relatively infrequent occasions when people do sign advance directives, they're usually thinking about what they would want in a crisis rather than for a chronic illness.

Montana and other states are trying to increase the number of nurses who are specially trained to treat survivors of sexual assault.