Excellus outsources senior-exercise program to cut costs [Business Journal, The (Central New York)]
By Seltzer, Rick | |
Proquest LLC |
DeWITT--Excellus BlueCross BlueShield,
Starting
Participating in Silver&Fit will mean
The program replaces
Excellus's
"The problem is the cost side of the equation on the medical side keeps going up," Burke says. "The dollar savings that we have to put into other things like a fitness benefit are shrinking, shrinking, shrinking."
Excellus chose to revamp its gym benefit because a relatively small portion of its 84,000
"The whole population was paying for this benefit, but only a small portion was using it," he says. "We were trying to strike a balance between the declining revenues, a fairly rich fitness benefit, and the need to keep people's premiums as reasonable as possible."
Excellus weighed the prospect of modifying its gym-benefit program over the last several years but has never considered eliminating it, according to Burke. The program promotes good health and can help Excellus financially, he says.
By encouraging seniors to stay active and healthy, a gym-benefit program can lower clinical costs that save Excellus money, he says. However, placing a dollar amount on savings from those lower costs is no easy task.
"It's very, very hard to demonstrate a return on investment," Burke says. "Trying to quantify it is difficult, because you've got to study a group over a period of time."
Selecting Silver&Fit
Once Excellus decided to subcontract out its senior-exercise program, the insurer put out a request for proposals, Burke says. It evaluated services offered and the cost of the program before choosing Silver&Fit, he says.
Burke could not provide Silver&Fit's cost. He also could not estimate the savings Excellus will realize from contracting with the program.
The Silver&Fit program is established in the wellness market and carries a good reputation, Burke says. Its parent company, ASH, covers more than 20 million members in specialty network-management, fitness, wellness programs, and prevention programs.
Silver&Fit currently offers memberships at over 11,000 fitness clubs and exercise
facilities in the country. Its website lists various Gold's Gym and Curves facilities as Silver&Fit participants in the
ASH is currently trying to sign up new exercise facilities within Excellus's coverage area. Excellus is taking member feedback on gyms that should be added to the network, and Silver&Fit will prioritize the addition of facilities that members frequently used in the past, Burke says.
Members who do not want to enroll in Silver&Fit will have the option of receiving a
Marketing
The switch to the Silver&Fit program could actually increase the number of Excellus Medicare Advantage members taking part in the company's senior-fitness program, Burke says.
Excellus will run newspaper and billboard advertisements to promote Silver&Fit. The program has a brand and a history that can be useful in promoting the insurer's gym benefit according to Burke.
"That might increase the overall utilization of the benefit," he says. "We're hoping it drives some enrollment in the insurance product as well."
Copyright: | (c) 2011 Central New York Business Journal |
Wordcount: | 698 |
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