Medicare needs to pay for reconditioning post-Covid

Medicare should be out front post-Covid covering Covid rebound. That's right. Medicare can help people recover the conditioning and mobility they lost from lack of movement during Covid.

After all, the medical community scared the bejesus out of folks, so much so, that many people went into a cocoon and wouldn't even walk around the block.

There have been studies (you betcha) on the deconditioning that went on during the Pandemic, particularly among people 60 and older. Here is an article on one study.

During Covid, we went to the grocery less and didn't play with grandkids. We didn't get to church and we didn't do this or that.

When we moved in to a new house in July, 2019 there was a woman, who was about 65, walking the streets every day. She disappeared. Her neighbor told me she was afraid of the virus and wouldn't so much as walk outside.

We were made afraid. I get the restrictions on indoors, but why couldn't we walk the yard, the streets, or the block around our buildings or homes. Why did people let themselves get so infirm?

One doctor interviewed said Medicare should step in, just like it does for rehab after hip surgery, and pay for reconditioning. We need rehab from Covid, whether we actually had the disease or not.

From the story:

Dr. Hoffman would like to see Medicare, which covers hip fracture surgery and rehabilitation after serious falls, underwrite extensive “pre-habilitation,” to rebuild the strength and balance of beneficiaries and prevent falls and fractures. He hoped that doctors conducting annual Medicare wellness visits would ask about fall risks and refer deconditioned patients to occupational and physical therapy.

**

I had to chuckle at this Wall Street Journal storyon these $900 attention-grabbing shirts the stars are wearing. What, you can't relate?

They are luxury novelty shirts and they do get attention.

I have a better way to get attention. You see the button on www.geezerjocknews.com that says "SHOP."

Buy yourself a tee-shirt, or hat, and wear that around as you walk, run, lift, or bike. It's about $880 less than a shirt of the stars.

** 

I try and stay out of the doctor's office, and the hospital, and I'm new to Medicare and health journalism, so I missed this little ditty (or I saw it somewhere and just forgot it):

        Genes load the gun. Choices pull the trigger.

The proverb went with a Ted Talk on dementia. It is about processed food and Alzheimers.

I watched the video and it made the argument that our diets fuel Alzheimers. You should watch it.

**

 

The New York Times had a recent story about IBM's effort to reduce the graybeards and blue hairs in its work force.

It seems the C-level knew all about the scheme. You don't say?

IBM was looking for traction in big data analytics and other such things that (they assumed) only kids with fast thumbs are capable of handling. Well, I happen to know a 70-something that completed a rigorous Masters in Computer Science in 2019. So there.

Anyway, here is a link to the story with the goods on Big Blue.

I never can resist the chance to poke at ageism.