Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com June 1, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 9 Q&A Planet Fitness eyes growth in fragmented fitness industry Q&A talks about competition in the gym/fitness industry with David Humphrey, CEO of ECP- PF Holdings Group, the largest franchisee of Planet Fitness. Q: You were recently appointed CEO of ECP-PF Holdings Group, the largest franchisee of Planet Fitness. It has 52 locations, some in Connecti- cut. What are your future expansion plans? A: We're constant- ly looking for oppor- tunities for expansion in all of our current markets and poten- tially in other areas across North Ameri- ca, too. Expanding in Connecticut is chal- lenging, as there are already 28 Planet Fit- ness locations across the state, but we've opened new clubs in Danbury, Newington, Derby, Norwichtown, Wethersfield, and Dayville just in the past two years. Now we're primar- ily concentrating on renewing and improving our current clubs, but we do have our eyes on sev- eral towns where we think people would welcome a Planet Fitness. In late 2014, we acquired 17 clubs located in and around Alba- ny, Buffalo, and Rochester in New York state, and we see great poten- tial for growth in upstate New York. Q: How are you getting peo- ple to sign up? One gets the sense with increasing obesity rates that fitness just isn't a priority for a lot of people. A: It's true that many Ameri- cans don't make fitness a priority, but one of the reasons is that a lot of people are put off by their per- ceptions of the stereotypical gym environment. Traditional gyms are often either cheaply built facilities full of power-lifting "lunks" who intimidate less-fit people, or fancy storefronts that offer a lot of frills but charge a small fortune for their classes and training sessions. We often see local competitors adver- tise low monthly fees but push their members to sign up for extra- cost training and classes total- ing $100 per year or more. That's where the Planet Fitness model differs greatly from traditional fit- ness offerings. The Planet Fitness brand is centered on welcoming the first-time or sporadic gym user, no matter what their fitness goals may be. For people just beginning to work out, walk- ing into a traditional gym can feel very intimidating, so we have created a "Judgment Free" environment, where everyone can feel at ease in our clubs, no matter what his or her workout goals are. Q: Where is competition coming from in the gym/physi- cal fitness industry? Do mobile apps take the place of physical train- ers? Do people just work out on their own? A: The fitness industry is very fragmented, ranging from large chains like Planet Fitness to small mom-and- pop gyms. It's not unlike the massage industry, where Mas- sage Envy emerged as a strong national brand in an industry that had been domi- nated by thousands of local day spas and indepen- dent massage therapists — all of widely varying quality. Con- sumers appreciate the quality, consistency, and value provided by proven national brands. Most Americans no longer stay in local roadside inns when they travel — they trust brands like Marriott, Sheraton, and Hilton. As for apps replacing face- to-face fitness training, to me it's similar to 20 years ago, when many people thought the Internet would completely kill the traditional retail store. Clearly, that hasn't happened, both because there's a social component to shopping that people enjoy and because good personal service adds value to the shopping experience. Sure, there are people who enjoy working out on their own, but others enjoy work- ing out with their friends. Plus, group fitness programs really make a big difference for many members. And don't forget, we put roughly half a million dollars of high-quality fitness equipment into each of our clubs — it's definitely cheaper to pay us $10 per month than to buy all those machines for your basement. Q: You come to ECP-PF with experience at Massage Envy Spa. What can you apply from FOCUS HEALTHCARE Greater Hartford healthcare partnership focuses on personalized care By Matthew Broderick Special to the Hartford Business Journal D uring her 20 years as an emergency room nurse, Sharon Gauthier, founder of Avon-based Patient Advocate For You, noticed a common trend among patients. "We'd provide the immediate medical care necessary and send the patient home," she said, "and often they'd be back within a week." It's the same readmission trend that drove Dr. Paul Guardino to found Farmington-based Personal Care Physicians LLC, a concierge-style primary care practice designed to provide more detailed patient-focused care. Now both businesses, recognizing the synergies between their respective operating models and patient populations, have begun collaborating. "My com- pany's client base is nearly 50-60 percent homebound patients," Gauthier said. "Our team of nurses can assess each patient's prob- lems and provide that infor- mation to Dr. Guardino's team for direct service." Both have privileges at a number of Hartford area hospitals too, including St. Francis Hospital and Medi- cal Center and Hartford Hospital. Concierge medicine — which provides access to doctors with a smaller patient base for an annual fee — is a small, but growing trend in the healthcare indus- try. The number of concierge practices nationwide has grown from less than 200 in 2005 — the year Guardino founded Personal Care Physicians — to more than 5,000 today, according to Concierge Medicine Today, which tracks trends in the industry. As part of Guardino's concierge practice, patients can schedule immediate appointments and get access to home visits, services that are aimed at elderly clients with health and transportation challenges, he said. "I wanted to be in primary care on the front line," said Guardino, "but that's hard to do [effectively] in a traditional practice." That's because, Guardino said, as the level of reimbursements for medical care from insurers and the government continues to decline, many physicians need to see more patients to generate the same revenue. In fact, according to the 2013 Physician Practice Preference Survey, more than 30 percent of physicians polled cited reimbursement decreases as the primary challenge to their income stream. Guardino's practice — which features two other full- time physicians and one part-time worker — has less than 300 patients. A typical primary care practice may have 3,000. A doctor in the traditional practice, Guardi- no said, may need to see 30 patients a day, roughly five or six an hour. "It's hard to investigate and ask questions face-to-face, order tests, and follow up when you're see- ing that many patients," he said. "Now, I never schedule any appointment for less than an hour." Guardino's concierge model charges an annual fee — ranging from $2,750 for individuals to $4,500 for a couple. Each appointment also has a separate cost that can be covered by traditional insur- ance, but Gauardino says the selling point of the con- cierge model is less about money and more about bet- ter quality care. "By having more time to focus on each patient in the primary care phase and having someone who fully understands the patient's background," Guardino said, "you can avoid a lot of the unnecessary testing and defensive medicine that occurs today and save the U.S. healthcare system billions." Research by the Harvard School of Public Health, for instance, estimates that nearly 30 percent of the $2.8 trillion spent nationwide on health care is wasteful. Guardino points out that a physician who has time to fully understand a patient's medical background may be able to adjust treatment and better assess safety con- cerns. "A complex patient may have 15 different medica- tions," he said. "Is anyone looking at the [drug] interac- tions? Are they all necessary?" Those are the same types of concerns that pushed Gauthier to start her patient advocacy business. Since its 2008 founding, Gauthier's company has grown from eight clients and $40,000 in revenue to more than 200 clients and nearly $500,000 in 2014, a revenue figure she expects Sharon Gauthier (left) talks with Patricia Harding, a Bristol resident and retired teacher. Gauthier helped coordinate Harding's care, which helped save her leg from amputation. Continued Continued P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D DAVID HUMPHREY CEO, ECP-PF Holdings Group ▶ ▶ The number of concierge practices nationwide has grown from less than 200 in 2005 … to more than 5,000 today, according to Concierge Medicine Today.

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