Wellmont Health System and Healthways Announce Population Health Partnership

Updated

Wellmont Health System and Healthways Announce Population Health Partnership

Collaborative to Establish Wellmont as a Leader in Wellbeing

KINGSPORT, Tenn. & NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Healthways (NAS: HWAY) and Wellmont Health System today announced the formation of a strategic partnership to focus on improving the wellbeing of the people of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Together, the two organizations will use their respective resources and capabilities to explore ways to keep people healthy, address modifiable lifestyle risks and optimize care for the chronically ill.


This enhanced relationship will evolve the way health care is delivered in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Goals have been established to help increase the region's percentage of "healthy" people; reduce per capita health-related risk; lower incidence and prevalence of chronic illness; create fewer complications from known chronic disease; lower morbidity; reduce utilization of healthcare services; reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions; lower medical cost; increase productivity and performance and extend life expectancy.

This strategic initiative builds off an existing long-term relationship between Wellmont and Healthways. For several years, Wellmont has entrusted Healthways to help manage its diabetic patients. Healthways is also assisting Wellmont with strategic planning and physician integration and network development.

This partnership will now provide several new potential opportunities for collaboration, including improving the wellbeing of Wellmont's employees, deploying a wellness improvement solution to employers in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, optimizing patient treatment in the post-acute setting and exploring how to most effectively cooperate with other community efforts to improve wellness in the communities served by Wellmont.

Additionally, Wellmont and Healthways will work together to develop innovative offerings for patients, employers and payors that focus on more fully engaging physicians in the proactive management of individuals with modifiable lifestyle risks and actively engaging all those involved in caring for individuals with chronic illness.

"Our patients and families in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia face real challenges if they want to stay healthy and avoid chronic disease," said Denny DeNarvaez, president and CEO of Kingsport-based Wellmont. "We view taking responsibility for the health of our neighbors as a natural extension of the healing environment Wellmont has created. We are about more than just treating the sick - we also value our ability to keep people well and keep them out of the hospital. If we are to be a leader in addressing the unsustainable nature of health care in this country, we must re-engineer the way we collaborate with physicians, employers, health plans and communities.

"Our decision to partner with Healthways is based on our need for a trusted industry collaborator who has a common vision related to the wellbeing of our community and has proven results from utilizing their scalable solutions to drive innovation and comprehensive, sustainable behavior change for the chronically ill and those with modifiable lifestyle risks.

"Healthways will work with market leaders like Wellmont to tackle the rising cost of health care in this country," said Healthways CEO, Ben R. Leedle Jr. "Wellmont is an acknowledged leader in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, and we recognize their commitment to improving the health of people in the communities they serve. We are honored that Wellmont has chosen Healthways as a partner to improve wellness and lower health-related costs for the people served by Wellmont."

Wellmont and Healthways will collaborate around their collective broad set of technology and management tools, along with their dedicated, highly trained workforce of population health experts. As a result, physicians will benefit from a far greater ability to guide their patients' health and keep pace with their constantly evolving patient populations.

With this partnership, both organizations are deeply aligned and will take advantage of their collective capabilities to introduce innovation that further advances the model over time. Wellmont and Healthways will now confirm their initial strategic, implementation and operating plans for the adoption of new capabilities and services for deployment in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. When fully operational, the benefits of this partnership will be demonstrated through a number of channels, including Wellmont facilities, physicians' offices and community- and business-based venues.

About Healthways

Healthways is the largest independent global provider of well-being improvement solutions. Dedicated to creating a healthier world one person at a time, the Company uses the science of behavior change to produce and measure positive change in well-being for our customers, which include employers, integrated health systems, hospitals, physicians, health plans, communities and government entities. We provide highly specific and personalized support for each individual and their team of experts to optimize each participant's health and productivity and to reduce health-related costs. Results are achieved by addressing longitudinal health risks and care needs of everyone in a given population. The Company has scaled its proprietary technology infrastructure and delivery capabilities developed over 30 years and now serves approximately 40 million people on four continents. Learn more at www.healthways.com.

About Wellmont

Wellmont Health System is the premier provider of healthcare services for Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, delivering top-quality, comprehensive healthcare and wellness services. The Wellmont system was formed in July 1996 with the merger of Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., and Bristol Regional Medical Center in Bristol, Tenn. Over the past decade, Wellmont has grown to include eight full-service hospitals: acute care hospitals Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., Bristol Regional Medical Center in Bristol, Tenn., Mountain View Regional Medical Center in Norton, Va., Lee Regional Medical Center in Pennington Gap, Va., Lonesome Pine Hospital in Big Stone Gap, Va., and Hawkins County Memorial Hospital in Rogersville, Tenn., and a critical access hospital in Sneedville, Tenn. Wellmont is an operating partner with Adventist Health System at Takoma Regional Hospital, an acute care hospital in Greeneville, Tenn. Wellmont hospitals offer a broad scope of services ranging from community-based acute care to highly specialized tertiary services including neonatal intensive care and two trauma centers. Wellmont is one of the region's largest employers with a staff of nearly 7,000 dedicated professionals. Nearly 600 physicians deliver care at Wellmont facilities across Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Wellmont hospitals have been recognized as Top 100 performers in heart care, intensive care and performance improvement. Learn more at wellmont.org.

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Healthways
Chip Wochomurka, 615-614-4493
chip.wochomurka@healthways.com
or
Wellmont Health System
Jim Wozniak, 423-230-8237
jim.wozniak@wellmont.org

KEYWORDS: United States North America Tennessee

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