Allina Hospitals & Clinics and Life Time Fitness to Launch Groundbreaking Partnership

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Life Time Fitness, Inc. (NYSE:LTM), the Healthy Way of Life Company, and Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a not-for-profit family of hospitals, clinics and other care services throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin, have joined forces in a groundbreaking partnership. Formed by the leadership of both organizations in response to the nation’s challenge of reducing health care costs, the organizations aim to positively impact serious, yet controllable, health factors that greatly contribute to those costs and impair employees’ health.

“As a physician, I find this partnership to be tremendously important”

The collaborative effort will focus on several elements:

Life Time plans to provide its comprehensive health and wellness assessment, and health promotion program, myHealthCheck, to Allina physicians, nurses and staff as a first step towards integrating health and wellness with health care
Allina physicians are expected to be connected to Life Time destinations in Minnesota in order to provide medical education and counseling to Life Time members and staff, and medical services for Life Time endurance events
The organizations plan to explore innovative opportunities to inject health and fitness expertise into traditional health care delivery
Allina and Life Time will partner to provide integrated community health and wellness programs to the community with the goals of reducing overall health care costs and improving access to preventative health and wellness education and services

The partnership launched with the introduction of Life Time Fitness’ myHealthCheck to more than 600 Allina staff and physicians. myHealthCheck is a comprehensive results-based program that identifies risk factors and promotes ongoing guidance with wellness coaches. This innovative health assessment program brings meaningful change to traditional corporate wellness programs, empowering both businesses and their employees to address costly health risk factors. myHealthCheck promotes a culture of accountability and personal responsibility for the adoption of improved health and wellness practices, supported by measurable health assessments and results-driven employee incentives.

The myHealthCheck program also includes a 12-month reassessment to measure results against goals. Unlike traditional self-reported risk assessments, myHealthCheck evaluates employees’ health, wellness, fitness level and lifestyle through blood work, metabolic testing and wellness coaching, while providing each individual with a personalized health profile to set personalized goals and measure progress. Users can track their exercise, nutrition, weight loss and more through their personal myHealthCheck online dashboard. Additionally, each myHealthCheck participant receives relevant on-line risk specific communication, can participate in wellness coaching sessions and receive ongoing guidance from Life Time health and nutrition professionals.

“Historically, the health care industry has focused almost exclusively on illness,” said Kenneth H. Paulus, president and CEO of Allina Hospitals & Clinics. “While this has resulted in outstanding acute care, little focus has been placed upon the impact of preventative health and fitness measures on the health of the community. Core to the launch of our partnership is the introduction of Life Time’s myHealthCheck wellness program to our employees. The comprehensive nature of this program makes it an outstanding solution for Allina and we believe the results provided to our employees will translate into actionable behavior change. We finally are getting to the core issues of employee health, which has a direct relationship to staff engagement and productivity, not to mention health care costs. We plan on applying the lessons we learn from this partnership to our broader mission of keeping our community healthy.”

“We are pleased to partner with Allina, which has long been a recognized leader in delivering patient care through its hospitals, clinics, and specialty care services,” said Bahram Akradi, Life Time Fitness chairman, president and CEO. “I applaud Allina’s forward-thinking leadership when it comes to the need for education and programs that help individuals take responsibility for their state of health and wellness, while inspiring them with the proper education and guidance. Together with Allina, we look forward to having a significant, measurable impact when it comes to helping individuals lead healthier, more active ways of life, while helping to blunt spiraling health care costs.”

In the coming months, Allina and Life Time will focus on creating opportunities for Allina patients and Life Time members to benefit from a more holistic approach to health and wellness.

“As a physician, I find this partnership to be tremendously important,” said Bob Wieland, M.D., executive vice president of Allina’s Clinic and Community division. “Health doesn’t begin and end in a doctor’s office. I believe collaboration between traditional health care providers and organizations that focus on fitness, nutrition and wellness offer a clear way forward to a time when the health care system does a much better job helping people maintain their overall health, rather than just treating them when they’re sick. This partnership with Life Time will allow us to realize that goal sooner.”

In addition, the two organizations plan to identify specific, community focused opportunities to provide additional access to health and wellness services, including healthy nutrition, active living and life balance education and awareness. Additional planned areas of collaboration include offering health and fitness training, education and equipment to identified school districts, police, and fire departments.

About Allina Hospitals & Clinics
Allina Hospitals & Clinics is a not-for-profit system of hospitals, clinics and other health care services, providing care throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Allina owns and operates 11 hospitals, more than 90 clinics, and health care services, including home care, hospice and palliative care, oxygen and medical equipment, pharmacies and emergency medical transportation.

About Life Time Fitness, Inc.
As the Healthy Way of Life Company, Life Time Fitness (NYSE: LTM) delivers the certified professionals, comprehensive businesses and incredible destinations that help people positively change their lives every day. The Company’s healthy way of life approach enables its customers to achieve their health and fitness goals by engaging in their areas of interest – or discovering new passions – both inside and outside of Life Time’s distinctive and large sports, professional fitness, family recreation and spa destinations. As of June 30, 2011, the Company operated 92 centers under the LIFE TIME FITNESS^® and LIFE TIME ATHLETIC^SM brands primarily in suburban locations in 21 states and 26 major markets. Additional information about Life Time centers, programs and services is available at lifetimefitness.com.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current expectations of future events, and can be identified by words such as “expect,” “will,” “believe” and similar words speaking to the future. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary from Life Time’s expectations.