Integration Over Innovation in Health and Wellness

It's a provider of nutrition and fitness solutions. You know their brands, Nutral Systems, South Beach, Diet, Prime Fitness. They're launching a new nutrition division that also takes into account some of their existing brands. He joins us in our Bloomberg Interreactor Broker Student, New York. Say your name for me, because it's beautiful. Do not much better and much better? Tell me tell us a little bit about the wellness

division that you got. Have created this nutrition division specifically, and I think it's not so much addis about wellness is that we are addressing now the social determinants of health. Where you live, where you age, your financial makeup has more of a determinant of your health outcome than your genetic code. And what Tivity has done for years, we've had the signature iconic brand Silver Sneakers, which provides physical

fitness to nearly sixteen million seniors. If you're aging in America today, especially in rural America, and you are inactive, chances are you're also very much alone and you have food in security. And so what Tivity Health is aspiring to do with our new brand wisely, well, it's almost like the trifecta. How do we address inactivity among these seniors?

How do we address food in security? And if you're addressing food in security and you're addressing in activity, you're going to address the new chronic condition of the twenty one century, all loneliness. And that's really what we are aspiring to do. And so how do you do that? Where does the rubber meet the road here in terms of the types of activities are the types of services or products that you're going to provide? Well, Silver Sneakers

has been around for twenty seven years. We have eighteen thousand fitness centers that are part of our network. And let me say those to you. When the seniors are going to the fitness centers rest as sure they're not bench pressing a hundred and fifty pounds right, They're there because they're making social connections. And there's a quickneys central opportunity with our fitness center partners to identify are they feeling alone. If they are feeling alone, I can bet

my bottom dollar that they have issues with food. And so we have this trusted brand called Silver Sneakers. Why not add food and nutrition and social connections to the program.

And that's really what we're doing. I feel like when it comes to this, like what you do as a younger individual carries over into as you age, and I feel like there's a lot of things we could get into because I feel like, you know, there's some people, whether young or old, are just trying to get through the day, get their job done, to care of their family,

get to bed and get some sleep. Um and those who often I think at the higher incomes, you know, scale, can have equipment in their home to work out and stay healthier, can buy healthier food. I mean, there's a lot of things going on. I feel like it's a it's a bigger, broader societal question. I mean, you're talking about loneliness. Um, you know, we used to have a family structure where they're often very you know, several generations in a home. My parents grew up that way. I mean,

it's it's just a lot of things going on. How do you fix what is a very big, I think problem. Well, my favorite philosopher, Yogi barrow One said, you don't want to make the wrong mistake. Yeah, And you know, I think there's a quinines sentual opportunity to recognize and I am. I'm an author of a book that I released three years ago that talks about this need of integration. We have been folks, seen our efforts on innovation, and yet the answer is really about integrating what's out there. Case

in point, you have the Silver Sneakers program. Sixteen million seniors get it for free, yet we only have three and a half million that have signed up for that Sneakers. It's a physical fitness program that Medicare Advantage of plans are providing to the senior population. It's getting them out of their home into a fitness center. And as I stated before, it's not just about working out. Our seniors are not just on the treadmill. They're making new friends

let me push the point. You know, one step further is that there's meals on wheels in the local community, there's bingle night, there's all these activities that unfortunately if you don't ask the senior. And I did a up ed on December twenty six that appeared in USA Today and I basically titled it, ask your seniors Are they lonely? There's something about not wanting to admit that you're lonely, and so we need to ask the question and give

you a great specialization. Right, everybody, most people except for Jason, likes to be a little kid. But you know what it's for the seniors. It's an accumulation factory. No, I get it. You you lose your spouse, your you know, son or daughter has moved away, your kids take the car keys away, your best friend has passed away. It's an accumulation factor. And so we need to really step forward and ask the question are you alone? And then be able to integrate them into services that are available

in the community. And so, and we want to talk more about this. We're gonna hold you over talk a little bit more. But you know, briefly, how does nutrition sort of fit into that well, again, if you go back to the social determinants of health, where you live, where you sleep, your financial makeup in many respects will determine whether or not that last week or that last two weeks of the month you can afford to buy food and you can afford to buy medication. And what's

happened to very significant legislative laws have been passed. C MS passed the law where they're going to reimburse up to four weeks of food delivery for a senior that has been released from the hospital but doesn't have the means or the capability to cook for themselves. Brilliant. Donato Tromudo still with us, CEO of Tivity Health based down in Nashville, Tennessee. He's here with us in New York City.

So Donato, I want to sort of go back a step if we can, to the underlying business, because you ultimately own a number of brands that people are familiar with, South Beach and nutri System. Tell us about those businesses and how it all sort of fits together absolutely, and so you know, I did speak a few minutes about activity health and sover Sneakers, and so what we have is another vertical which is the weight management vertical, and we'll still continue to drive forward the ability to grow

nutri system in South Beach. But then what really is the quintessential opportunity for the company is to connect these two programs to address the social determinants of health. And as I shared with you before, there have been two very significant legislative changes. One is by CMS which is now reimbursing up to four weeks for food delivery for those seniors incapable of cooking for themselves or even affording

food for the first month post discharge. And the Chronic Care Act that was passed by the Senate in Congress. Those two legislative changes really fuels this opportunity to combine these two verticals and create an entirely new revenue stream for the company. So one of the things I wanted to ask you about as I have come to understand how this all fits together, is you're seeing a lot of the market, especially when it comes to wellness, go higher end, you know, trying to get to the more affluent.

It feels like you are going the other direction in a lot of ways. Well, when you look at social determinants of health, let's you know, put it on the table, let's let's come clean. It really is addressing that in many respects, your zip code, your economic profile is really going to determine your outcome more than your genetic code and your right it does address a whole different population than that whole upstream higher incause this is not the

typical audience or customer for South Beach diet. No, it's not. But again, if you look at the fact that we're still going to go after the demographics that are suitable for South Beach, We're still going to go after the demographics that are suitable for Nutra System. But the acquisition of Nutri System, which was almost a year ago, was to really step forward where the market is heading. Medicare advantage plans which ensure now nearly twenty millions of all

the seniors. They have been given legislative approval to provide supplemental benefits like transportation, food delivery, which speaks well to the sixteen million seniors that we are managing right now. Yeah, it's interesting because you guys, from what I understand, I'm just looking at some of the information that you're you guys have provided us a pilot program by Walmart correct which certainly would tap into this population that you're looking

to go. Absolutely. The partnership that we signed last year actually has a three legged stew to it. Yeah. One of the other programs that is a corollary to Silver Sneakers is our program called Prime very simply expressed, it is Sneakers for the population of eighteen to sixty five. We signed a partnership with Walmart to provide that program to their one point four million employees. The second part of the program is my vision has always been to

bring Silver Sneakers to where their seniors gather. Seniors gather at the Walmart store every single day, why not tailgate on that and put a Silver Sneakers class. And Walmart, as you know, is getting into healthcare in a very big way. But to what Jason said, and you know, to be fair, not like I do feel like when we talk wellness and stuff, it is often like a

higher end service. And it's interesting, as you said, to kind of you know your approach, because there are lot of Americans that I think are being left behind, absolutely, and seniors in particular particularly. I do want to ask you, because we were talking about a little bit in the break and take a little bit of a turn here. But you are based in a really interesting part of the country right now, and you're sharing some data with us about a hundred people moving to Nashville every every

single day, which is unbelievable. What does that tell us about the addressable market and sort of the state of the sort of population right now in the United States. Well, I think what you do is, I think you take a step back, is that people are looking for affordable places to live. They're looking for communities that are very vibrant. And this is no different than seniors. Seniors struggle every single day with the financial makeup, the financial purchasing of homes,

how they pay for food. Seniors are struggling what they want communities. I think this is what has made Nashville so remarkably popular. It's affordable, there's communities that are being formed. It's not just a community of young, it's a community of old and coming together. And I think that's what we really have to look at as we look at cities that have become so unaffordable to take up regidency

and yourk happens to be one well. And I also just think in a tight labor force too, if you've got, you know, a hundred people moving in every day. For somebody who runs you know, a company, you it sounds like you have a pretty nice available pool of workers to choose from. We do more growth ahead, more acquisitions, um right now we want to execute and you know, I think we have enough on our plate in terms

of focus on execution. Right. All right, well, thank you so much for spending some time with this to NATO Tremuda. You will be down, I believe at the NASDAK tomorrow. Bringing tomorrow, I said, sorry, alright, CEO of Tivity Health Lot going on a really interesting take on as Carol and I talked about sort of a mega trend that we're very interested in. Different, different you know, just coming into this, we were talking about tough Mutter and what's

going on there. This is a totally different view of health and wellness and addressing a population that I think oftentimes does not get addressed as much when we talk about it. Left behind, no doubt about it,