Health Buzz: Mayo Lets Go of Some Medicaid Patients and Other Health News
Mayo Lets Go of Some Medicaid and Medicare Patients
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., announced last week that it will cease to offer healthcare services to Medicaid patients from Nebraska and Montana, the Washington Post reports. The main branch of the clinic will continue to accept Medicaid patients from Minnesota and its four bordering states, according to the Post. Mayo's branch in Arizona is also restricting some of its patients. Its facility in Glendale will stop offering primary care to patients with Medicare; the restriction does not apply to those receiving advanced care. Mayo spokeswoman Shelly Plutowski told the Post that the changes were a result of underpayment to healthcare providers by the two programs, but some skeptics say high rates for other patients should make up the difference, the paper says.
[Read: 3 Groups That Will Soon Face Higher Medicare Premiums and The Nation's 10 Costliest Medicare Markets.]
Beat Boredom With Fantasy Fitness
Boredom is one of the most common excuses for not exercising, U.S. News's Katherine Hobson writes. Exercise should be fun, and matching your workout to your daydreams of being a pro quarterback or a member of the cast of A Chorus Line is a great way to do that, she writes. The good news is that even some of the more extreme training regimes have been tamed in classes for mere mortals.
Among the list of workout options is CrossFit, a strength and conditioning program aimed at improving general fitness. Using equipment ranging from standard barbells to gymnastic rings and your own body weight, CrossFit classes teach you basic form and skills and then guide you through classes that include the "Workout of the Day," an ever changing, intense, and often intimidating-appearing set of exercises, which may be short and brutal or longer and at a slightly easier pace, depending on the day. Indeed, CrossFit has a reputation as being for only the superfit, Hobson writes. But all of the workouts can be modified even for folks who aren't particularly in shape. Read more.
[Slide Show: 10 Excuses for Not Exercising and Why They Won't Fly.] [Read: 6 Ways to Motivate Yourself up off the Couch.]
Is it Safe to Let Your Kids Walk to School?
Few kids walk to school anymore. To find out why, U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute spoke with Lenore Skenazy, author of the new book Free-Range Kids . Skenazy has caught a heap of heat for letting her 9-year-old son ride the New York subway by himself and last month was quoted in a New York Times article on how walking to school has become a political act.
When asked about the danger in letting children walk to school alone, Skenazy says stranger danger is fiction, not reality. She says 50 kids a year are killed by a stranger, while 1,000 kids a year are killed by their relatives. It's horrible either way, but we have a skewed view of the reality, Skenazy says. "What we forget when we try to keep our children safe from the rarest of crimes is that we're opening them up to a host of other difficulties, including fatness," she says. "Our children are fatter than ever. They're depressed. It is kind of depressing when you're being told you're in such danger that you need a bodyguard to get from the school to the car, because outside is too scary." Read more.
[Read: Parents Keep Teen Drivers Safe When They Control the Car Keys.]
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