Accepting Insurance, should be more common.
My new Fitness Studio is located in a neighborhood that mainly consists of corporate employees etc, as soon as I started accepting insurance the interest in our services has quadrupled. I mean what excuse do they have not to train if its free to them?
Find a way to accept insurance and your business will do so much better.
Insurance Coverage for Personal Training
You would be quite surprised to hear what has happened, and has been happening, in the world of Personal Training regarding insurance, preventative medicine, medical coverage, and gym memberships.
I recently read an article published by the New York Times about the methods some companies are using to combat the current Healthcare coverage issues in the United States, in an attempt to keep down coverage costs on employees.
There are a number of company's that have designed "incentive" programs for employees, most of which state, that if the employee is going to a gym so many times per month, the company will pay the membership fee.
While working at Equinox Fitness in Santa Monica, CA, I worked with a few members with such benefits. They would have the front desk print out a record of the number of times they scanned in to the gym each month and would simply hand it in at work. Talk about an awesome deal, no?
There are also other incentive programs where companies are paying clients to lose weight and maintain a healthy BMI. These programs have been shown, in some cases, to not be as effective, as they have experienced employees starving themselves to reach their "goal", receiving their incentive, and then going back to their old habits.
There has been both success and failure in these innovative attempts, but the concept does exist and is being practiced in the corporate world.
Personal Training is getting closer to becoming a part of that, and I have made it my own personal mission to see that it does.
The overall idea is that a company can potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run, paying their employees to work out and stay in shape; as opposed to having to pay to treat diabetes, obesity, and/or cardiovascular related health problems 5 to 10 years down the road.
Here's another awesome example of the industry taking another step in the right direction.
When I was training at New York Sports Club in NY, roughly 3 years ago now, I had a client that was a 72 year old woman. Her medical coverage covered up to 60% of the cost of her personal training sessions under a reimbursement policy.
Her particular medical coverage decided a woman at her age should be covered for such forms of "Preventative Medicine." Obviously, she was a senior citizen, which played heavily in the decision of the insurance company to cover the expenses, but never-the-less, it is evidence that this industry has the potential to move in the right direction.
The objective here is to legitimize the industry by continuing to increase education, background, and experience requirements for personal trainers; legitimize the services provided by personal trainers through the standardization of program design and results tracking; and (probably one of the fastest ways this bridge can be built) is placing an emphasis on Corrective Exercise (possibly even making it a requirement for all personal trainers), whereas every personal trainer is qualified to treat Post-Rehabilitation Patients.
The reason the last point is so important is because insurance in this country is not a huge fan of "Preventative Medicine." Their motto is, "You get hurt. We'll pay. You're not hurt? You pay."
Patients are already getting the benefits of coverage in Physical Therapy. The way I see it, Personal Training and Corrective Exercise can logically become the next, very necessary, step in that program to full recovery.
How many post rehab clients have you had that have said, "Wow, I'm making so much more progress here than I ever made in Physical Therapy."
Physical Therapy is a critical component to surgery and injury recovery, but it is quite obvious, even in my own experience, the level of healing that occurs when these patients follow-up with Personal Training... it's astounding).
We have already begun to bridge the gap, but, as I said before, it is my personal mission to continue this push. Personal Training is something I believe in, and the second we can focus on improving the quality of the industry, the quality of the service, the quality of the service providers, and begin to quantify their values, personal trainers may finally be in a position where financial security and job security don't seem so distant.
I would really LOVE to post these articles, but this website won't let me link yet!
Google it, and you will find some incredible reads on the topics discussed above.
SupertrainerHQ