A former lobbyist, Means believes fitness brands can position themselves as key players in the national healthcare debate, especially under new leadership in the White House
For Calley Means, fitness is medicine.
The co-founder of telehealth platform Truemed, Means spoke at the recent Eudemonia summit, where he slammed America’s healthcare system as broken and corrupt while calling for systemic change that would prioritize healthy eating and physical fitness over pharmaceutical interventions like Ozempic to combat a nationwide chronic-disease crisis.
A proponent of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement with unofficial ties to the campaign of president-elect Donald Trump, Means can be something of a controversial figure. Means is also highly opinionated, and he’s got a distinct view on how the fitness industry should position itself to gain more respect among lawmakers in Washington.
Athletech News caught up with Means after Eudemonia to get his thoughts on fitness and the future of healthcare.
Fitness as a Medical Necessity
With more Americans obese and/or chronically ill than ever before, Means is calling on fitness brands to play a bigger role in improving people’s health.
“We are in a metabolic health crisis that will destroy the United States of America – physical fitness is a linchpin of getting ourselves out of that,” Means told ATN. “There’s a generational opportunity for the gym industry to, in one voice, explain how they’re at the center of health.”
While direct government subsidies for gym memberships might seem like a pipe dream at this time, there are ways to lower the costs of fitness. Means points out that Americans can use tax-free money from health savings accounts (HSA) and flexible spending accounts (FSA) to buy things like gym memberships, workout equipment and supplements.
To use HSA/FSA funds for fitness and wellness, Americans must obtain a letter of medical necessity, or LMN, from a doctor, which confirms that the services in question are being used to prevent or treat a chronic condition.
“The Health & Fitness Association and every single gym … should be educating every single American to demand a letter of medical necessity for exercise from their doctor if they’re working to prevent or reverse a condition,” Means said.
The Rise of Truemed
According to Means, around 80% of Americans have the ability to use HSA/FSA funds but only around 40% do so.
To encourage wider use of HSA/FSA funds, in 2022 Means co-founded Truemed, a telehealth platform that makes it easier for people to use tax-free funds to pay for fitness, wellness and health products.
“We started the company looking at this proliferation of Adderall and Viagra being prescribed online,” Means recalled. “And we were like, ‘Can we use that same system to prescribe broccoli, Omega-3s and Pelotons?”
Essentially, Truemed speeds up the process of obtaining an LMN, removing time and friction from the shopping experience. When people check out to buy products ranging from exercise bikes to yoga memberships online, they can click an option to “pay with HSA/FSA funds” to get redirected to the Truemed website.
“Our innovation is we add that telehealth qualification process into the payment flow,” Means explained. “Just like a (financial) firm asks a couple of credit questions, we ask a couple of health questions.”
In the two years since its founding, Truemed has established itself as one of the dominant players in the growing fitness-as-healthcare movement, partnering with brands including Peloton, 24 Hour Fitness, Hyperice and AG1.
“We’re working with 18 of the top 20 Shopify health and wellness merchants,” Means said. “Almost every single direct-to-consumer company on our wish list when we started the company … is integrated with us.”
Fighting for Funds
Truemed’s fight isn’t a new one for the fitness industry – the Health & Fitness Association, formerly IHRSA, has long been fighting to pass the PHIT Act, a bill that would make gym memberships and youth sports count as qualified medical expenses under the HSA/FSA system, effectively bypassing the need for services like Truemed.
Means, a former lobbyist for the food and drug industries who changed course after his mother died from pancreatic cancer, is skeptical that the PHIT Act will ever get passed, citing pharmaceutical companies’ influence in Washington and their interest in making sure such a bill never sees the light of day.
Instead, Means argues that platforms like Truemed are more practical. As they become more widely used, eventually, a wider pool of HSA/FSA money may become available for Americans to use on fitness, health and wellness.
“Right now, there’s $150 billion of flexible funds available,” Means said, citing the current nationwide pool of HSA/FSA funds. “In five years, it should be trillions.”
There’s no doubt that the road to improving Americans’ health is a long and arduous one. It almost certainly won’t be solved in one presidential cycle, no matter how bullish Means and his allies are on Trump’s promises of substantive healthcare reform.
But the Truemed co-founder is optimistic that every bit of progress will help, and that making it cheaper for Americans to access fitness and wellness is a good first step.
“Everyone throws up their hands and says, ‘People don’t want to exercise, they don’t want to take supplements, they don’t want to eat healthy,’” Means said, hitting back at the argument that Americans’ health problems stem from laziness rather than economics. “I guarantee you, if we steer more money and more medical recommendations to these root-cause items, there’d be a transformation of American health.”
