By WARREN WOLFE, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Dr. Patricia Lindholm thought it was a great idea this year when Medicare announced it would cover free annual wellness visits for older people.

"OK, finally we're getting Medicare to cover preventive medicine, catch problems while they're smaller and more treatable," the Fergus Falls, Minn., family physician said.

At first it was little things -- conversations forgotten, details neglected -- that warned of the devastation to follow for John Frei. A project manager who built homes and then banks for a living, the Minnesotan was still in his early 50s and didn't notice the changes.

Rolling his wheelchair down the hall after exercise class recently, Herman Kapla paused to assess the results of the vigorous new workout program at the St. Paul, Minn., nursing home where he lives.

"Oh, I don't know. I'm pretty much the same," the 98-year-old said. "Well, except I can stand up now."

Rolling his wheelchair down the hall after exercise class recently, Herman Kapla paused to assess the results of the vigorous new workout program at the St. Paul, Minn., nursing home where he lives.

"Oh, I don't know. I'm pretty much the same," the 98-year-old said. "Well, except I can stand up now."

By day, Hanaa al-Khansa is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Minnesota, hoping to practice family and pediatric medicine.

But on evenings, weekends and holidays, she's part of a small but significant experiment that could ease the widening gap between the needs of America's increasing population of elders and the supply of specialists who serve them.

When a group of Minnesotans strolled and rolled into the dining room last Saturday night, replete in suits and formal gowns, half the diners aboard the cruise ship Majesty of the Seas rose and applauded.

You'd think they'd never seen a nursing home at sea.

Across the nation this holiday season, thousands of families will slam into the reality that life has changed for aging parents -- dad is far more frail than relatives thought, mom forgot to prepare the holiday feast, the house is filthy, the refrigerator is bare, or a stack of bills has gone unpaid.

Need a colonoscopy? That'll be $1,354 at Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester, Minn. -- or just $402 at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

For the first time in the nation, a Web tool is offering health care shoppers a glimpse into what insurance companies pay on average for 103 common medical procedures, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced this week.

The eight high school students had worked together part-time at the Good Samaritan nursing home in Albert Lea, Minn.
And, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday, the girls also laughed together early this year as they spat in frail residents' mouths, poked and groped their breasts and genitals, and at times taunted them until they screamed -- or witnessed those events.