Fitness as a Part of the U.S. Healthcare System:

A big, even inevitable idea for the industry and the world

Scott Goudeseune, President & CEO

Janet Frenkel, Chief Operating Officer

Cedric Bryant, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer

American Council on Exercise

WHO ACE IS

• Largest nonprofit fitness certification, education, training program in the world

• Certifier of more than 55,000 fitness and health professionals• Unbiased evaluator of fitness products and trends• Trusted voice and resource on all things fitness among

professionals, media, and consumers • Connector of consumers to certified professionals• Builder of collaborative relationships across the fitness and

health sectors• Leading the professions we represent more directly into

accountability in the fight against obesity.• Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HADPun3lcns

© 2014 ACE

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Healthcare

Fitness

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What’s happening in healthcare today?

Out of control costs are sparking reexamination of basic premises.

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Longstanding basic premise:

People live their lives wholly apart from healthcare system. Then when they get sick, they go to a doctor for diagnosis and treatment. In essence, system reacts to illness, then charges fees for services (as opposed to outcomes).

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New emerging thought:

The healthcare system should intervene earlier in peoples’ lives with a variety of health providers who are qualified to help them make and sustain behavior choices that stave off preventable illness and ward off chronic conditions.

In other words, while the system would still react to illness, it also would invest in proactive prevention of illness.

© 2014 ACE

What’s happening in fitness today?

Pressure to evolve both from within our industry and externally.

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Longstanding basic premise:

People will come to our facilities because we are appealing, and the services we offer are needed and beneficial. Thus “our industry will be relevant”, and it will thrive.

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New emerging thought:

It is no longer a foregone conclusion that an increasingly, startlingly unhealthy population will seek us out, no matter how appealing our facilities may be. For those who do seek us out, there’s no assurance that they’ll stick around for long.

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Other factors shaping our future outlook:

• Limited member loyalty and high attrition• Slow growth or no growth in gym memberships• Little penetration into new populations• Advancing conversation about the possible role of fitness

facilities and pros in the healthcare continuum• Growing pressure by governments and other powerful forces

to raise standards for fitness professionals

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It means an opportunity to embrace both our circumstances and our missions to evolve with the times, situate ourselves to impact more lives, and situate ourselves to thrive by doing so.

What does all this mean?

Our opportunity is grand. But what are our barriers? They’re the same ones businesses always face when staring down the prospect of significant evolution.

ADDRESSING BARRIERS TO CHANGE

UncertaintyInertia

Lack of guaranteesFear of the unknown

Comfort with how things currently work

And in our case, belief that insurance reimbursement might just come along and make all this easy

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Is health insurance reimbursement the piece we need before we commit to evolve?

ADDRESSING BARRIERS TO CHANGE

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Pros• It’s safe• It’s comfortable

Cons• It may be

foolhardy

Waiting for insurance reimbursement before we evolve…

ADDRESSING BARRIERS TO CHANGE

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AN INDUSTRY THAT LEAPFROGGED

Athletic trainers saw an opportunity, got out of their own comfort zones, and made themselves relevant to vastly more people.

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AN INDUSTRY THAT LEAPFROGGED

• 1969 AMA recognizes importance of athletic training (AT)

• 1971-Texas becomes first state to license AT

• 1990- AT recognized as allied health profession by AMA

• 2006- Zachery Lystedt suffers brain injury following return to middle school football game

• 2009- Zackery Lystedt Law passed (governs return to field)

• 2009-Fair Practice Settlement with APTA

• 2012-Junior Seau Dies

• 2013-Concussion legislation passed in 48 states

• 2013-Student Athlete’s Bill of Rights Introduced

• 2013-Licensure in 47 States + District of Columbia

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ACE has decided that the risks of waiting to evolve are far too great to let it all just happen to us.

So ACE is leading.

WHERE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD

ACE BOLDLY LEADING INTO NEW LANDSCAPE

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ACE BOLDLY LEADING INTO NEW LANDSCAPE

Leadership & Collaboration

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ACE BOLDLY LEADING INTO NEW LANDSCAPE

Piloting of new programs and

supporting research on behavior change and

the prevention and management of obesity

and other chronic conditions

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ACE BOLDLY LEADING INTO NEW LANDSCAPE

100,000 by 2018

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ACE BOLDLY LEADING INTO NEW LANDSCAPE

Engaging in government affairs

Leading fitness certification organizations into public affairs and issue advocacy to support the growth, sustainability, and impact of our industry and our profession.

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ACE BOLDLY LEADING INTO NEW LANDSCAPE

• Professionally supervised physical activity in communities and public spaces.

• Recognition of fitness professionals as health providers

• Behavior-change facilitation and addressing the obesity epidemic.

• Incentivizing employee wellness programs that support physical activity and sustainable behavior change

Issues

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ACE BOLDLY LEADING INTO NEW LANDSCAPE

• Responding to state and municipal lawmakers examining the issues.

• Briefing federal lawmakers, staffs, regulators, and opinion-shapers in Washington.

• Educating our certified professionals.

• Talking to the news media.

• Chairing the all new Coalition for the Registration of Exercise Professionals.

What ACE is doing on

these issues

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JOIN A NEW PUBLIC-AFFAIRS COALITION

Nonprofit 501(c)6 organization committed to advancing the fitness profession and securing recognition of practitioners who hold NCCA-accredited certification as healthcare providers.

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A NEW PUBLIC AFFAIRS COALITION

• American Council on Exercise (ACE) (charter member)

• American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) (charter member)

• Cooper Institute (CI)• National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF) (charter member)

• National Exercise Trainers Association (NETA)• National Strength and Conditioning Association

(NSCA) (charter member)

• Pilates Method Alliance (PMA)

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A NEW REGISTRY

Now those who seek to hire, work with, or refer to an NCCA-certified exercise professional can easily find one and verify his or her credentials.

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BENEFITS FOR INDUSTRY AND PROFESSION

• Public will now have single destination to easily identify and verify uniformly qualified candidates for hire

• Clubs and facilities will have an easy way to confirm the status of accredited exercise professionals

• Huge step towards inevitable expansion of highly qualified exercise professionals into the healthcare continuum

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What does all of this mean for our industry and our future?

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• Accredited certification of professionals will be demanded by the public and may become a legal requirement for the industry.

• As fitness professionals become recognized as healthcare providers, they will need places to provide that care.

• For clubs and facilities to be trusted in such a new way, the public must have confidence that the people who work there possess ironclad credentials.

• Clubs and facilities could become known as places to find highly qualified prevention and wellness-intervention services.

• For clubs and facilities to be ideally positioned in this new paradigm, they must get get actively engaged and involved today.

Imagine…

CALL TO ACTIONClubs and facilities should be proactive to keep up with the demands of the public even before they become legal requirements

• Place greater emphasis on the certifications held by the exercise professionals at their locations

• Emphasize the ever-increasing value of recognized accreditations to the exercise professionals who hold them and to the public

• Make use of, and encourage the public to make use of, USREPS to confirm the accreditations of exercise professionals holding NCCA-accredited certifications

• Integrate programs offered by NCCA-accredited health coaches into regular service offerings

• Bring news of the expanding role of exercise professionals as healthcare professionals to the community including schools, parks and recreation facilities, churches and workplaces

• Commit to joining ACE in this paradigm shift. Commit to recalibrating how the industry thinks about the services that it offers and the ways that it offers them, so that it can positively impact vastly more lives and thrive by doing so.

© 2014 ACE

© 2014 ACE