HMO fitness program may lower health care costs - Yahoo! News

Elder fitness programs makes sense QJ

HMO fitness program may lower health care costs - Yahoo! News: "By Charnicia Huggins
Mon Jan 15, 4:45 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Offering seniors with diabetes the opportunity to participate in a subsidized community-based exercise program may help lower health care costs, if the seniors attend the fitness classes regularly, preliminary study findings suggest.

'These findings warrant additional investigations to determine whether policies to offer and promote a community-based physical activity benefit in older adults with diabetes can reduce health care costs,' conclude Dr. Huong Q. Nguyen, of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, and colleagues.
According to previous research, nearly one in five Medicare recipients have diabetes, and diabetes-related health care costs account for about a third of total Medicare expenditures.

The benefits of exercise, particularly important for diabetics, who are at risk of having more functional disability, include reduced health care costs and better physical functioning. Yet, few seniors report participating in regular, moderate-intensity physical activity.

Observational data suggest that health care costs can be greatly reduced among a previously sedentary older adult who engages in moderate physical activity three days a week or more. Nguyen and colleagues investigated whether a physical exercise program offered to seniors as part of their Medicare benefit would also reduce health care costs and utilization."