- Key Insight: Learn how white-glove navigation bridges insurance gaps for retired athletes' complex neurological care.
- Expert Quote: Downs warns healthcare navigation "isn't for the faint of heart," requiring specialist advocacy.
- Forward Look: Prepare for increased Medicare transitions and specialized behavioral-neurological care coordination needs.
- Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
Gina Downs, owner of Empowered Consulting, is a lifelong football fan who coaches former National Football League players and their families through the
As the benefits concierge for Hall of Fame Health, a white-glove insurance
"Navigation of the healthcare system and insurance is not for the faint of heart and most of the general public," she observes.
Her responsibilities include plenty of blocking and tackling — from helping connect players and their families with the right point of contact at premier medical and
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Downs joined the Hall of Fame Health's insurance navigation team on a steady basis a year after its 2020 launch. Initially, she was asked to assist Floyd Little and his wife in navigating their way through some healthcare coverage issues. Little, who played halfback for the Denver Broncos and became the club's first thousand-yard rusher, was trying to figure out why he was being denied treatments for a rare cell cancer.
"I reviewed their coverage, looked at exactly what plan he had and then made some recommendations so that he could get the care that he needed, and his wife was super thankful for that," she recalls.
Sadly, Little passed away several months later at the age of 78. She was able to meet his widow DeBorah at the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony for the class of 2021 in Canton, Ohio where Downs was actually a featured speaker.
"She started bawling when we met me and gave me the biggest hug," Downs says. "It was so moving. My boss started crying. I didn't expect that kind of impact and emotion to come out of that conversation."
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Little was one of several players in an NFL program to study and treat symptoms caused by CTE, a progressive brain disease known in medical circles as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Linked to repeated head impacts, it can trigger memory loss, confusion, mood changes and dementia — conditions that often appear years after the trauma. Downs helps them navigate neurological care, apply for assistance if they have cognitive decline, ensure that they receive the right medicines from their health insurance plan and eventually transition to Medicare.
Another high-profile client Downs has helped is 68-year-old Ivory Sully, III, who played for the Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now living in California, he was in need of a procedure, but the doctor he had been seeing
"So, I asked him, 'Let me look at what providers we have in your area, and would you be open to going to one of them instead?' And he said absolutely," she reports. Sully has since received the care he needed and made a fully recovery.
Before becoming a mother, Downs used to watch both college and professional football from Thursday to Monday — rooting for her alma mater, the Purdue Boilermakers, and hometown Chicago Bears. Two players from the 1985 Bears Super Bowl team who she cheered on as a child are now her clients.
Although she's very comfortable with public speaking, Downs was a bundle of nerves and nauseous about her speech that first year she was with Hall of Fame Health. Her remarks were geared toward gaining the trust of players' wives. One reason is that in professional sports circles, she says there's an abundance of "shady characters" who have their own agenda. She says the wives need support because they are the ones who step up behind the scenes and advocate for their husbands.
"I started speaking and honestly blacked out," she recalls. "I don't know what I said. I was just speaking from the heart, and I know I had them laughing, and I made it through my two minutes. I got done and had a mimosa waiting on the table for me."
