AARP Offers Membership With Free Health Screenings

AARP is using free health screenings as an incentive to increase its membership and as a means to promote it message that preventative care is the key to lowering health care costs.

The powerful advocacy group is on tour with Walgreen’s, which for the first time has invited a partner to participate in its long running tour offering free health services for underserved communities.

The two-year program operates by way of a fleet of nine 40-foot vehicles co-branded by the firms and customized to handle the screenings for adults. The tour, executed by Marketing Werks, began last month in New York City and will travel to 3,000 communities nationwide.

Any person who completes the screening is offered one free year of AARP membership. The incentive benefits existing members, too. Those who receive the screening will have their memberships extended free for one year.

“Our social impact agenda is really around financial security, affordable health care and livable communities and obviously health care is a very key area with everything that is going on right now,” Angela Jones, a spokesperson for AARP, said. “The tour is a visual representation of our mission coming to life because we are helping Americans get vital information so they can make decisions about their health.”

AARP members themselves are helping out, volunteering at various tour stops to distribute membership materials and to answer questions about membership, now 40 million strong. AARP materials, including a postage paid envelope to return the completed membership application, are also put in a “goody” bag that people take with them.

Walgreens, a partner of AARP, is underway with its fifth tour. This year, many more stops have been planned and the events, in general, are on a grander scale. Most stops are near a Walgreens location, which is pre-announcing those dates and location, as well as posting flyers and posters in its stores. A co-branded Web site offers tour details and other information.

AARP, which used to stand for the American Association of Retired Persons, targets people 50 and older. Members’ median age is 62 and more than half are not retired.