In the recent Washington Post article, Workplace wellness programs work best when bosses buy into them, Elizabeth Heubeck explains how senior-level support helps drive engagement and adoption of wellness in the workplace. We couldn’t agree more.
At Blue Shield of California, our CEO, Paul Markovich, conducts meetings from his walking workstation, and employees are encouraged to work out at the onsite gyms at offices across the state. We feature healthy items in the cafeterias and quiet rooms throughout the buildings.
However, we also know that being healthy is not just what you do at the office, it’s what you do every minute of every day. What will I eat for breakfast? Will I find time to exercise or meditate today? Will I turn off my phone when I sit down to dinner with my family? These decisions often require some guidance and support – and to that end, Blue Shield of California is launching a digital therapeutic lifestyle medicine platform to all it’s members in spring of 2019. This platform will be available for our members when they need it and how they need it and will allow them to focus on the health goals that they choose.
In creating the platform, Blue Shield did not make any assumptions about what our customers would want. Instead, we conducted a series of consumer co-design sessions where we listened to people across all health plans and all walks of life, to see what would resonate with them. We learned that a series of preferences drew people in and engaged them in using the tools for better health. Them we designed a platform that delivered on those preferences and called it Wellvolution Next.
What makes Wellvolution Next different that standard wellness platforms?
- It’s proven - break down your goals into simple, achievable steps, and week by week achieve your goals using scientifically-proven approaches in your Proven Path.
- It’s tailor-made for you – no two people are alike, so approaches to health should be unique too. Wellvolution Next matches you to a Proven Path selected for you based on your current status and goals. This makes health goal achievement easy.
- It has a consumer stamp of approval – we offer only market-proven apps that are loved by people like you via one central, curated platform.
- It’s flexible - don’t get stuck with any one thing, unless you want to - we offer frictionless switching of premium app access to programs you want to use today.
- It’s covered – Largest in the industry aggregation of apps is a fully covered benefit included with your health insurance with no added costs along the way.
- It’s a way to disrupt the world of rigid healthcare – you are the change agent of your health because you know your body best. For big issues there is your doctor, but with the Proven Path you can improve your well-being and effectively prevent disease.
While wellness in the workplace can help individuals start their journey to better health, it’s critical to arm people with the right tools to meet their health goals when and how they like. Wellvolution Next gives our members that ammunition needed to achieve optimal health in a very personal way.
Angie Kalousek is director of markets, lifestyle medicine for Blue Shield of California. She oversees the sales and marketing of clinically proven lifestyle medicine programs for Blue Shield of California’s members.