As the industry broadens its remit and increasingly focuses on both prevention and integrating with health services, private health insurers are drawing us into their world and finding innovative ways to contribute

Health insurance companies are quietly reshaping the health and fitness industry, developing services which complement and enhance what we do.

In this issue, we look at two powerful examples of ways in which these organisations are integrating with the industry and bringing new dimensions to the services on offer for consumers, operating partners and governments.

On page 56 we talk to Andrew Snelling, CEO at SIV in Sheffield, about a new gym membership being offered at sites across the city which includes mental health support.

The scheme is being delivered in partnership with private health insurer Westfi eld Health and is the result of a very symbiotic arrangement between the two organisations. It includes free telephone counselling, 24/7 phone access to a GP and membership of something called Big White Wall – an “online mental health and wellbeing service, that offers self-help programmes, creative outlets and online therapy.”

It’s a wonderful sign of the times that the importance of looking after mental health is recognised to the point it can be offered widely. Congratulations to SIV for making this important move.

Snelling’s advice to other operators considering introducing this kind of service? Take it seriously. “If you want to launch a scheme,” he says, “The advice is quite simply – get it right. Mental health is too important a subject to fudge the provision of services in any way, or to treat as a marketing tool.”

Looking further afield, on page 34 we talk to the team at Pihlajalinna, one of Finland’s biggest health insurance providers.

The company has entered into a partnership with the government for the delivery of healthcare, which sees it being paid €3,800 a year per person to cover all medical needs.

The radical aspect of the deal is that if people don’t get sick, Pihlajalinna gets to keep all the money, so it’s effectively being financially rewarded for keeping people away from the doctor’s surgery and out of hospital.

This clearly incentivises the insurer to invest in prevention and it’s great to see one of the first decisions it made was to buy a health club business as a base for its programme, rather than finding the cheapest drug-based solution.

This is one of the most exciting developments I’ve seen for years and we’ll be watching with interest to see which interventions are proven to be most effective at keeping people well and healthy. If this turns out to be a win:win: win for consumers, government and organisation, then perhaps we’ll see this structure replicated in other places, as insurers continue to help us put the ‘health’ into health club management.