Health Insurance Company Teams With Workout App To Save You Money

New healthcare guidelines set to roll out in just a few weeks, and some insurance companies are scrambling to get ready for the new healthcare exchange. One such company is getting ahead of the curve by partnering with a company of a workout application.

Gympact is a phone application that allows a user to pick a goal of how many times they want to workout per week. After they set their goal they are paid a certain amount every week if they get done all the workouts they promised to do. However, if they don’t finish the workouts for the week they owe money to the company.

Bill Marzolla, a personal trainer at Toadal Fitness in Santa Cruz, sees a dozen clients a week, and puts them through extreme workouts, and the workouts Bill puts himself through are ten times as intense. He said he would recommend this application to his clients because a monetary incentive gets some of his clients motivated.

“Typically I am their motivation to come to the gym. I give them homework assignments. I usually find something to hold them accountable. We have had programs in the past that people pay into it, and when they lose weight they will get money back.”

The Gympact application is cashing in on that idea. For example, if you workout three days a week you get paid one dollar and fifty cents. If you’re goal is higher, you will get paid more. But if you miss the workout you have to pay five dollars, but if you really want to scare yourself into working out, you can set the money value you have to pay as high as you want.

Now Blue Shield California wants in on the action. A recent E-mail sent to Gympact customers explains the partnership with Blue Shield California. The $200 discount works on top of federal subsidies, and families receive the discount for each person active on the GymPact program. Current Blue Shield CA individuals and Small Groups also qualify.

Bill says he’ll share whatever it takes with his clients so they’ll show up to their workouts.

“It’s a great program to them in here. We just want people to be healthy, so if they find motivation from this it’s a great start.”