Tune In Tune Up

Tune In & Tune Up, the health awareness initiative of the RI Music Hall of Fame, has changed a lot in the last year. Conceived as a way to raise awareness in the music community of health issues, especially preventative care, it ended up focusing a lot of effort on helping musicians navigate the strange landscape that shaped efforts to get insurance without a traditional employer. Now, it’s largely a matter of making the music community realize that affordable health insurance is available.

“For insurance, the answer now is really to point people to the state health exchange. We’re still working on raising awareness about that,” says RIMHOF’s Russell Gussetti, explaining why many of the organization’s efforts, which had involved clever ways of navigating the old healthcare maze, have been discontinued.

Tune In & Tune Up still has a lot to do and a lot to offer, though, according to Gusetti, who co-founded the program with local musician Don “DC” Culp. “Health and healthcare are still major issues for musicians – it’s not a line of work that’s known for its healthy living,” explains Gusetti. The program is currently being retooled to help musicians (and those in the music industry, like sound engineers and family members) connect with preventative and wellness measures – everything from tips about how to stay healthy while living on the road (and to a large extent, in bars), to group discounts on local wellness products and services.

For example, to encourage Tune In & Tune Up members to get their annual physicals, the program will pay up to $25 to any member who sends in a co-pay receipt from a doctor proving she or he got an annual check-up. Why? “We need musicians to stay alive,” says Gusetti. It actually sounds deceptively simple when you put it that way.