Huge segments of our population deal with Hypertension, Diabetes and Obesity. Politicians tell us who to blame for it, doctors define how to manage it, and the pharmaceutical industry makes drugs to address the symptoms. Our healthcare system is reactive, telling us what to do and what they will pay for to manage those diseases once they have manifest. Politicians, doctors and pharma make big money while health insurance costs skyrocket and more and more people need more and more care. The goal seems to be to treat, not to cure.
Changing the system is almost impossible, as all those making money would have to agree to make less. So, if we cannot change the system, we need to change our dependence on it. The only truly achievable solution is a healthier America.
Twenty years ago, Dr. Robert Sollis published “Exercise As Medicine”, a groundbreaking concept that told us how proper exercise and nutrition can help control, minimize, and in some cases even cure disease, with Hypertension, Diabetes, and Obesity at the top of the list. The problem isn’t the knowledge; it is the application. Physicians know little about exercise prescription, the health insurance industry wants little to do with proactive, preventative action, and most commercial gyms are driven by memberships, not medicine.
But as long as the system remains broken, it represents a massive opportunity for the fitness community. Once understood, the boots-on-the-ground application of Exercise As Medicine is neither complicated nor costly, and represents a vast, perpetual and highly lucrative profit center, with significant dues and non-dues revenue potential.
FitRx Solutions is the functional business model for Exercise As Medicine. Properly implemented, a participating facility will see new members and new revenue, local population health can improve, related healthcare cost savings can be realized, and the reactive, pharmaceutical-driven landscape forever changed for the better.
We can’t change the system… but we can make a difference – one club at a time.
