Kaiser Permanente Hawaii is offering members free gym membership if they meet certain health and fitness goals.
The state’s largest health maintenance organization is launching the Kaiser Permanente Fit Rewards program on Jan. 1 to give members an incentive to get active.
The health plan will reimburse members up to $200 to join or renew their annual gym membership at participating gyms if they go to the facility at least 45 days for 30 minutes a session by Dec. 31, 2017, “as a reward for making good health a priority.”
The new rewards program is an expansion of Kaiser’s Active&Fit program through American Specialty Health Fitness Inc. Similarly, the Silver&Fit program for Kaiser’s Medicare members allows seniors to receive a gym membership at no cost as a standard Medicare health plan benefit.
Most Kaiser members, except those in Medicare and Medicaid/QUEST, are eligible to participate in the Fit Rewards program. For more information, go to kp.org/fitrewards or call 1-877-750-2746 Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hawaii time.
Hurricane Matthew toll could hit $10B
For a storm that inflicted less damage than many had feared, Hurricane Matthew nevertheless impaired or destroyed more than 1 million structures, forced businesses from Florida to North Carolina to close and put thousands temporarily out of work.
In many affected areas, small-business owners were still assessing the damage.
All told, the storm probably caused $10 billion in damage, according to an estimate from Goldman Sachs. Insurance companies likely will be liable for about $4 billion to $6 billion of that total, according to an estimate Saturday by CoreLogic, a real estate data provider.
Fed’s no-hike decision a ‘close call’
WASHINGTON >> Federal Reserve officials kept a key interest rate unchanged last month but saw the decision as a “close call.” Many believed that the case for a rate hike had strengthened in recent months.
Minutes of the Sept. 20-21 meeting released Wednesday showed Fed officials were inching closer to hiking rates for the first time since December. But they decided to hold off because inflation was still running below their 2 percent target and there was little sign of rising wage pressure.
The minutes said some officials believed it would be appropriate to raise rates “relatively soon” if the labor market kept improving.
ON THE MOVE
Anthology Marketing Group has announced the following promotion and hires:
Adrian Young was promoted to project analyst from research coordinator. He is a University of Hawaii at Manoa marketing graduate who joined the firm in January. For its advertising group, Joel Fernando, a graphic design graduate from UH-Manoa, was hired as studio artist; Minette Chan, previously with Lent Enterprises Digital, was hired as digital media strategist; and Jourdyn Kaarre was hired as assistant account executive for its public relations group. She was formerly with Volunteers of America, Dakotas, before relocating to Hawaii.
Correction: Kaiser Permanente Hawaii is offering members a free gym membership if they meet certain health and fitness goals. Members pay up to $200 at participating gyms and if they work out 45 days for a minimum of 30 minutes they will receive their money back. Participating gyms have agreed to not charge members extra above the $200. An earlier version of this story characterized the promotion as a reduced gym membership.
