LifeBalance Recreational, Cultural & Wellness Benefit Program

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Last Updated: Saturday, March 13, 2010

The following article is taken from the December 18, 1998 edition of The Business Journal:

Health Built On Prevention

When Paul Alati and Dave Miller quit their regular jobs with visions of corporate America paying them to provide recreation options to employees, many thought the two were hallucinating.

Three years later, it's safe to say they indeed saw something no one else did, but it was no illusion. The "recreational and cultural benefit program" they created, called LifeBalance, sports 325,000 members who get discounts on everything from paragliding, scuba diving and mountain climbing to ceramics, golf and Shakespeare.

Alati and Miller built their membership by first making deals with myriad retail businesses – offering to advertise the business to their LifeBalance membership in trade for a discounted rate. They then sold their program to companies as an employee-benefit program that is used to boost morale and set the company apart from industry competitors.

Per month, companies pay approximately $2 per employee for the program, which gets their employees anywhere from 10 to 50 percent off a variety of products, services and instruction. The program also nets the employer a 50 percent discount on event-planning services, which Alati and Miller offer under a separate division of their parent company, Absolute Recreation Management.

ARM started slowly, but Alati and Miller are now on the cusp of becoming rich men. They're planning to break into the Seattle market next year, which could rapidly and exponentially increase their membership.

The first two years were spent burning up savings and beating feet as they tried to convince retail businesses the benefits of being a provider and trying to convince corporations the benefits of enrolling their members.

"Some people think it's a great idea and sign right up, others think it's great but don't want to afford it, and still others think we're crazy and don't know how we make any money," said Alati.

The long-term success of the LifeBalance program, however, lies in how many enrolled members actually take advantage of the program. If few use it, the lucrative contracts companies have signed with Alati and Miller may not be renewed.

The company's big break came last September when they signed up Providence Health Plans, which is paying for all its employees and members – some 300,000 folks – to be LifeBalance members.

Given the number of people Providence was bringing to the program, they finagled a substantial price break on member rates. Still, the size of the deal instantly catapulted the fledgling operation into legitimacy and profitability.

It wasn't just a good sales pitch that got them there, either. Just ask the employers who bought into the program.

"I was impressed because LifeBalance is really a PPO, but outside the medical delivery realm, and that broadens the definition of health by making recreation part of a healthy lifestyle, which is very much in line with our mission of improving people's lives," said Barbara Christensen, regional director of Sales and Marketing for Providence Health Plans.

In addition, it was an opportunity for Providence to acknowledge that not everybody recreates by lifting weights or running or going to an aerobics class, Christensen said.

"Now there are other ways to be physically and mentally fit, like ballroom dancing, scuba diving or the theater – at discounted rates – and both of those things go a long way with our diverse membership," she said. "We also use it as part of our marketing, as one of the features that sets us apart."

Another participant in the program is the Portland operation of Express Human Resources, a company hired by others to act as their human resources department. Vice president Kirk Nelson said his goal was to find a program that he could make an investment in that sent a message to his clients and their employees.

"Because it's an exclusive agreement, we bring something extra to the table for our client; it raises a tremendous amount of eyebrows," he said. "For employees, many of whom fear we will strip out their corporate culture, we are able to show them that we care about whether they are happy and healthy outside the workplace."

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