MINNEAPOLIS — The YMCA of the North and Life Time Fitness are each working on solutions for thousands of senior members who recently learned that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota will no longer cover their memberships through the SilverSneakers program.

"I was really mad," said Barry Baines, a retired family physician and one-time Medicare medical director for a local insurance company. "It just doesn't make sense to me why the largest Medicare provider in the state would do this and at the 11th hour."

In a statement on Nov. 21, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota cited "high cost pressures related to Medicare coverage" as the reason for dropping YMCA of the North and LifeTime locations from its existing network of roughly 600 gyms that accept SilverSneakers.

After first repo

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