Depending on where you live, the gyms are starting to open back up! Find out how your plan might help you pay for that membership this week on 65 and Counting!
(Intro)
Welcome back everyone! Another big thing everyone wants with their Medicare plan is that “free gym membership” they see on TV or hear their friends, family, and neighbors talking about. This week i’m going to explain just what that means and how it helps you!
As we all know, insurance carriers benefit from you being healthy. It keeps money in their pockets as well as yours! So in an effort to keep you healthy, they’ll offer all sorts of healthy benefits to keep you feeling good and safe. This includes all kinds of fun things like meal planning, immunizations, check ups, and more popularly, gym memberships!
Now, it’s important to remember that not all plans offer a fitness benefit and those that do, offer them differently. Some plans will pay for part of a gym membership and others will pay for the whole thing! Let’s take Maricopa County in Arizona for example. In Maricopa County, almost all Medicare Advantage plans and even some Medicare Supplement plans will offer fitness benefits this year.
I won’t get into details of which companies are offering which fitness benefits, but I will talk about a few of the main ones.
Probably the one most people have heard of is SilverSneakers. Now, Silversneakers is a completely separate company from whichever insurance carrier you have that offers it. They are partnered with over 60 different health plans around the country. They have deals with thousands of Gyms in the United States from small locally owned gyms to nationally recognized brands to offer you memberships AND classes for little to no cost. They teamed up with thousands of instructors and personal trainers to create these classes and workouts for seniors at all different levels of fitness and health!
Another very popular one is Silver and Fit. Just like the last program, Silver and Fit also partners with gyms across the country to bring you low to 0 cost gym memberships. They’ve also got all kinds of extra’s like daily workout classes, the new trend of “On-Demand Workouts” Home fitness kits, health coaching and rewards programs!
There’s a whole lot of other fitness benefits offered by plans under different names like myFlex, Renew Active, etc. And they all offer similar benefits! And most gyms aren’t partnered with just one of these benefits so in other words, the gyms overlap! Which means your specific gym may be in one or more of the different benefits!
I know you’re asking yourself, how do I use these benefits? In almost every circumstance you’ll have to enroll in these programs on the companies website. For example, if you have SilverSneakers on your Medicare Advantage plan, simply go to silversneakers.com and click the button to create an account. Once your account is created, you’ll be able to find out how to use your benefits to get a gym membership and participate in all the neat extra’s that come with it!
So, whether you want to pump some iron, take a jog on the treadmill, or if you’re like me: slip into the gym sauna and not touch a single piece of workout equipment! Fitness benefits will be of use to you! If you think you have a fitness benefit but you’re not sure, or just want to take a look at some plans that include it, we’re here to help. Certified Medicare Planners are standing by waiting to answer all your questions about fitness benefits and how to use them.
I’ll include links for a few of the main fitness benefits websites in the description of the episode.
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