topic Re: Silver Sneakers in Wellness

Silver Sneakers

smoky22 — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:18:05 GMT

I saw the post about Medicare Advantage Plans and I was hoping someone would mention the Silver Sneakers benefit. My current plan (United Health Care) has a Silver Sneakers rider that costs me $15/month. There is no premium (except the regular medicare charge) so I only pay for the Silver Sneakers rider. They are not offering the Silver Sneakers benefit next year so I'm going to change plans. Does anyone know if there is a way to just get Silver Sneakers without it being tied to a Medicare Advantage Plan?

Re: Silver Sneakers

chrystaltree — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:20:38 GMT

Oh...please.... now you gotta tell us what ""silver sneakers"" refers to.

Re: Silver Sneakers

smoky22 — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:32:47 GMT

On 10/3/2014 chrystaltree said:
Oh...please.... now you gotta tell us what "silver sneakers" refers to.

Oh, sorry, I thought anyone who was familiar with Medicare Advantage Plans would know about Silver Sneakers. It's a fitness program for seniors and I have only seen it offered in conjunction with a Medicare Advantage Plan. Since my Insurance Plan is dropping this fitness benefit for next year, I wondered if there was a way to sign up directly with Silver Sneakers. When I looked on their website, it didn't appear to be so.

Re: Silver Sneakers

terrier3 — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:41:24 GMT

Silver Sneakers is either a free or a reduced cost health club membership subsidized by the Advantage plan carrier.

At the beginning, when Advantage plans were given extra money by the gvt. - it was an experiment to prove that in the free marketplace, the insurance companies would compete for business and lower premiums. The powers that be in DC thought that private companies could provide health services more affordably than Medicare.

Silver Sneakers, dental, eyecare, message, acupuncture, etc. were added, using that extra money, to make the plans popular.

Unfortunately, after many years - I think over 15 years - Advantage plans STILL cost more than the gvt. administered Medicare.

Silver Sneakers plans are going away...plus a lot of gyms don't want to participate anymore either.

Re: Silver Sneakers

DoneTryin — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:47:20 GMT

I was going to suggest that you check with your local YMCA, but then I just checked the membership rates in my neighborhood & it's $43/month, triple what you're paying now for Silver Sneakers. If you live in a large metropolitan area, you might trying checking around for senior centers that may offer fitness programs at reasonable rates. Good luck!

Re: Silver Sneakers

dubll2011 — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:56:42 GMT

All Highmark BC-BS plans offer it in Southwestern PA as well as a few others. Both advantage and gap supplements. I have SS with my retired teacher's insurance. It is a supplement plan not an advantage. I'd look around to all plans in your area.

Re: Silver Sneakers

Kachina624 — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 22:11:30 GMT

I have an Advantage plan that includes Silver Sneaker but I've never used it. In lieu of this coverage, why can't you just join a health club? I see Planet Fitness advertising use of their facilities for $10/mo.

Re: Silver Sneakers

smoky22 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 00:39:39 GMT

Thanks to all for the replies. I like Silver Sneakers because there are classes associated with it for older people. I know the YMCA has those classes because I used to belong. Yes, they are expensive. In fact, probably one of the most expensive gym memberships but they do have a lot to offer. Unfortunately where I live now, there is not one convenient to me.

The other thing I like about Silver Sneakers is that, in my area, there are 3 different fitness centers that allow me to use my silver sneakers membership. One of them has a pool and another one has great classes. I need the classes that are geared to people with less flexibility.

I have the Medicare And You booklet and will check to see if there's still an affordable plan that offers Silver Sneakers.

Re: Silver Sneakers

jlkz — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 02:03:12 GMT

I have Silver Sneakers and use both: the pool at one sports club and the gym at a 24- hour place as well as at Curves. Since Curves moved, I no longer go there. SS sends you a quarterly chart showing how often you used SS and then compares your data to other SS users.

Re: Silver Sneakers

151949 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 02:10:13 GMT

Last year we had silver sneakers with our United health care advantage plan PPO - they dropped it for this year and when we asked how to get silver sneakers they said if we changed to the HMO it was still included. Sadly, for us, because we snowbird home to Pa half the year , we NEED to have a PPO so we were not able to get the silver sneakers. We now have to pay $47 each per month for our YMCA membership.

Re: Silver Sneakers

Retiredpsych — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:33:36 GMT

I have Silver Sneakers as a part of my UnitedHealthCare HMO insurance. But...every health-club and Curves in my area has dropped Silver Sneakers because they said that they could never get the money from the insurance company. They would bill the insurance for the client and never get paid. So..I pay a Senior rate at my health club and my Silver Sneakers card sits unused.

Re: Silver Sneakers

terrier3 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:36:11 GMT

On 10/4/2014 ednapsych said:
I have Silver Sneakers as a part of my UnitedHealthCare HMO insurance. But...every health-club and Curves in my area has dropped Silver Sneakers because they said that they could never get the money from the insurance company. They would bill the insurance for the client and never get paid. So..I pay a Senior rate at my health club and my Silver Sneakers card sits unused.

My local health club sold out to LA Fitness.

They don't accept Silver Sneakers because they said the price point the local insurers wanted was too low.

Re: Silver Sneakers

Perkup — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:51:59 GMT

I'm afraid you're going to find that many programs you once had with Medicare are going to be lost with this new "health care" plan. DH has Humana and has lost two programs - I don't remember which ones. Just the conversation.

My Medicare was under my personal Blue Cross policy, and they discontinued the prescription drug coverage with very short notice. I then had to go to another program, chose Humana, and am now paying an additional $58.00 per month for drug coverage that was previously included with my Blue Cross payments. By the way the Blue Cross monthly fees did not go down when they discontinued drug coverage.

IMHO I will be shocked if you find Silver Sneakers again. Good luck.

Re: Silver Sneakers

terrier3 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 17:10:15 GMT

On 10/4/2014 Perkup said:
I'm afraid you're going to find that many programs you once had with Medicare are going to be lost with this new "health care" plan. DH has Humana and has lost two programs - I don't remember which ones. Just the conversation.

My Medicare was under my personal Blue Cross policy, and they discontinued the prescription drug coverage with very short notice. I then had to go to another program, chose Humana, and am now paying an additional $58.00 per month for drug coverage that was previously included with my Blue Cross payments. By the way the Blue Cross monthly fees did not go down when they discontinued drug coverage.

IMHO I will be shocked if you find Silver Sneakers again. Good luck.

FYI - Advantage plans are managed by private insurance companies. Humana, BC/BS are both private companies...they can adjust the products they sell to maximize profits.

They are going to do whatever it takes to make as much profit as they can.

Unlike standard Medicare - they are in the business of generating profits for their stockholders. Why would anyone expect they wouldn't cut every corner they can?

They use the perks to attract new customers during open enrollment. If everyone drops the same perks, like Silver Sneakers, they will all be in a similar marketing position.

Re: Silver Sneakers

millieshops — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 17:14:34 GMT

The Advantage plans were an attempt started before Ocare by politicians thinking privatization could do a cheaper job than traditional Medicare even while providing more services.

Just like I didn't think Social Security generally should be privatized (and still don't after twice having my retirement saving decimated before the current admin came to office, I don't think privatization of healthcare works well either.

I don't even think you can blame what's happening in Advantage plans on Ocare. Lots of those companies were in trouble before it started - and, that's in spite of the fact that they start with lots of your tax dollars!

Why can't they make a profit? That's the question we all need to answer - even as a basically healthy retiree, I can tell you all, plan for healthcare problems and costs in your older years. Then if you're healthy and don't need them, you'll have dollars to help others or dollars to play with. Most of us ordinary retirees will not be worrying about having saved too many healthcare dollars.

Re: Silver Sneakers

151949 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 19:13:49 GMT

On 10/4/2014 Perkup said:
I'm afraid you're going to find that many programs you once had with Medicare are going to be lost with this new "health care" plan. DH has Humana and has lost two programs - I don't remember which ones. Just the conversation.

My Medicare was under my personal Blue Cross policy, and they discontinued the prescription drug coverage with very short notice. I then had to go to another program, chose Humana, and am now paying an additional $58.00 per month for drug coverage that was previously included with my Blue Cross payments. By the way the Blue Cross monthly fees did not go down when they discontinued drug coverage.

IMHO I will be shocked if you find Silver Sneakers again. Good luck.

The government does not tell them what to charge you or what incentives they can or should offer.They are a private business. Don't you people see they are jacking up the prices because they realize that everyone will blame O care instead of them. O care has nothing to do with it.

Re: Silver Sneakers

meem120 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 19:17:06 GMT

Check with your local YMCA...they offer it there.

Re: Silver Sneakers

151949 — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 19:17:22 GMT

For everything we get at our YMCA - pool - health club - trainers - classes and much more - I don't mind the $47 a month at all. It is still a bargain. And they suspend it during the summer so we don't have to pay when we aren't there and just resume when we get back home.

Re: Silver Sneakers

smoky22 — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 04:01:39 GMT

I realize the YMCA has great benefits (I used to belong), but they are a lot more expensive than most other fitness centers. Where I live now the YMCA is just not convenient (over 30 miles away). I'm going to ask the two health clubs I currently go to if they are still going to accept the silver sneakers memberships next year. If they do, then there must be an advantage plan still offering it.

Re: Silver Sneakers

151949 — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 13:12:05 GMT

You can google silver sneakers and see what plans in your area offer it.