Invest in your health

As I was riding to work today I could not help but to be amazed at the story about obesity in children in the USA on NPR. We must model what we want for our children. Recommendations are one hour of exercise per day!! When was the last time that we as parents followed that ourselves as parents? We put more effort and time into everything else that money can buy. Your best investment of time and money is do adopt an exercise program that includes doing something EVERY day of the week not just once in a while. When I exercise, my daughters tend to copy me!! Try it. It is the best gift you can give your children. If we fail to tackle obesity in this country we will be consumed with debt due to the complications of chronic disease, many of which are exacerbated or caused by obesity. We may have a foot or ankle injury that is preventing us from doing a particular exercise. I always provide alternative exercise suggestions to allow my patients to be active while simultaneously healing their foot and ankle issues!! Remember, there is always something you CAN do. Think about that rather than thinking about what you cannot do!!

Health insurance Confusion

Every day that goes by our health insurance benefits seem to change. What a patient expects to pay is a question that is often very hard for us as physicians to answer. Here at Gaston Foot & Ankle we make an effort to try and understand each patients benefits. This is not always easy. Our staff spend hours on the phone each and every day. We strive to give an accurate estimate of what a patient can expect to pay. However, with FSAs, HSAs, HRAs, high deductibles, coverage variances based on type of service or medical devises we provide, things can get confusing. We will continue to give the most accurate information possible, we all need to be patient as health care changes.