New spin on joining a gym: it pays people to work out

It's a financial liability for a health plan when its members don't take care of themselves, and health plans have an obvious financial interest in encouraging participants to stay healthy.

Saint Mary's Health Plans is taking that observation, obvious as it may be, to the next logical step: It's paying members in its plans $150 if they use Saint Mary's new Center for Health and Fitness 120 times a year.

And while the fitness center opened less than two months ago, the carrot dangled by Saint Mary's Health Plans appears to be attractive.

"People are paying attention to it," says Sarah Rosenberg, executive director of the fitness center.

If nothing else, it's a good investment.An annual membership in the fitness center is $691 a year (plus an enrollment fee), so a health plan member stands to recover more than 20 percent of the cost with regular workouts.

While the immediate goal of the link between the fitness center and the health plans is apparent healthy people use less medical service the long-term implications may prove even more important, says Lois Paynter, senior operations director for Saint Mary's Health Plans.

If participants in the plans stay healthy, premium costs can be controlled.And if premium costs are controlled, Paynter says health coverage is likely to be more widely available.

The Center for Health and Fitness which is open to the general public as well as folks affiliated in some way with Saint Mary's chose its name carefully, says Rosenberg.

It provides serious fitness evaluations as soon as members sign up, and its staff of fitness specialists all of whom have bachelor's or master's degree in the field are trained to get in touch with a member's physician if the initial evaluation spots a potential problem.

They've been doing plenty of fitness evaluations.

The center enrolled more than 700 members in less than a month after it opened, says Rosenberg.

It's managed for Saint Mary's by Power Wellness, a company based in Arlington Heights, Ill., that provides turnkey management of fitness centers for hospitals nationwide.

The Center for Health and Fitness is the first tenant to move into the Medical Plaza Office Building at Sixth and Arlington in downtown Reno.

The 50,000-square-foot center, which includes space on three floors of the office building, includes traditional cardiovascular and weight-training equipment along with a four-lane lap pool, a cushioned indoor track for walking and jogging, a children's area, a juice bar and an Internet lounge.

When the remainder of the professional office building to be known as the Saint Mary's Center for Health opens this spring, it will house outpatient services for oncology and radiation, Saint Mary's women services, physical therapy, executive physicals and an auditorium.

Q&D Construction of Sparks is the general contractor on the project, a development of Ensemble Investments LLC of Phoenix.