Healthy Hoops®

Keystone Mercy Health Plan and the Healthy Hoops Coalition created Healthy Hoops®, an innovative, asthma education/basketball program. Using basketball as a platform, Healthy Hoops teaches participants how to manage asthma through appropriate medication usage, proper nutrition, monitored exercise and recreational activities.  The program provides comprehensive health screenings, individualized health action plans and targeted health education. 

In 2003 the Healthy Hoops Program was developed to combat a sharp increase in pediatric asthma diagnoses (and corresponding increases in ER visits and hospitalizations). The impact of the program was immediate: Healthy Hoops participants experienced a decrease in hospitalizations and ER visits, as well as increases in appropriate medication uses and treatment compliance.

Due to the positive results and outcomes of the program's early years, Healthy Hoops has since been expanded to include younger asthmatic children, ages 3-6, and to include other areas in and around Philadelphia.  Due to the success and effectiveness of the program, Keystone Mercy Health Plan has also expanded Healthy Hoops to target a variety of additional disease states including childhood obesity and cardiovascular disease.

View a tribute to the late Jim Boyle, a former coach of St. Joseph's University Basketball, who was integral in the development of Healthy Hoops and also partnered as a celebrity basketball coach during the 2003-2005 programs.

Healthy Hoops Video

View a video about the innovative Healthy Hoops program

For More Information

For more information, please contact Meg Grant at 215-863-5688 or via email at meg.grant@kmhp.com. Learn more about the national Healthy Hoops Program.