Australia's Largest Not-for-Profit Private Health Insurer Confirms Program Success and Announces Fiv

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Australia's Largest Not-for-Profit Private Health Insurer Confirms Program Success and Announces Five-Year Renewal Contract with Healthways

Represents Renewal of Longest, Largest, Most Successful Health Management Program in Australia

NASHVILLE, Tenn. & SYDNEY--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Australia's largest not-for-profit private health insurer, the Hospitals Contributions Fund (HCF), has today confirmed the success of its My Health Guardian program by announcing a five-year contract renewal agreement with Healthways (NAS: HWAY) , the world's largest well-being improvement company. In renewing its contract with Healthways, the provider of the My Health Guardian program, HCF will be investing A$100 million over five years to evolve the program and further strengthen well-being improvement outcomes and participant benefits. My Health Guardian is the longest running and largest health management program of its type in Australia. This renewal confirms the value of Healthways' health and well-being solutions and their global applicability.


HCF Managing Director, Shaun Larkin, said: "We are delighted to continue our partnership with Healthways. Chronic illness accounts for 70% of Australia's national disease burden today, likely increasing to 80% by 2020. MyHealth Guardian now offers a proven model for addressing this burden by improving individual health status, reducing lifestyle risks and containing demand for hospital care."

My Health Guardian commenced in 2009 as the largest population ever served under a single contract in Australia to actively manage and improve a population's health and well-being. HCF launched the program in a move to set new standards for health and well-being in Australia. Goals have been to help increase the percentage of "healthy" people, reduce per capita health-related risk and lower the incidence and prevalence of chronic illnesses.

My Health Guardian offers support to members suffering from up to 15 chronic conditions, including diabetes and heart disease, which together account for the bulk of chronic illness in Australia. This support leads to fewer complications from known chronic diseases; lower morbidity; reduced utilization of healthcare services; reduced unnecessary hospital readmissions and lower medical cost. All HCF members have access to a comprehensive suite of health and well-being resources, including customized health information, health risk assessments, health coaching and online personal health records. Services focus on prevention, education, behavior change and evidence-based medicine to drive adherence to proven standards of care, medications and physician care plans. The program has evolved over the first five years to offer new solutions to enhance members' health and well-being by leveraging new technology, mobile applications and social media engagement tools.

Outcomes demonstrated from the My Health Guardian program include1:

  • 32% of members reported an improvement in their Perception of Health Score;

  • 46% of members reported improvement in their medication management;

  • Significant reduction in lifestyle risk factors including:

    • Smoking rate reduced by 27%;

    • Physical inactivity reduced by 30%;

    • Obesity reduced by 8%; Statistically significant decreases in BMI for both obese and overweight participants;

    • Poor diet reduced by 20%.

A three-year peer-reviewed study2 of MyHealth Guardian, published in the journal, Population Health Management, found the program significantly has reduced the rate of hospital admissions for participants with heart disease and diabetes. Outcomes from the study include:

  • The program participant group (heart disease and diabetes) uniformly recorded lower hospital admission and readmission rates and average length of stay (ALOS) than the non-participating group, after both the 12-month and 18-month period.

  • For participants with heart disease, the difference in percentage change in hospital admission rates compared to non-participants was -7.2% and -12.0% after 12 months and 18 months respectively. This participating group also recorded statistically significant improvement in readmission rates after 12 and 18 months and ALOS after 18 months compared to non-participants.

  • For diabetes sufferers, the difference in percentage change in hospital admission rates was -7.8% after 12 months and -13.4% after 18 months for program participants compared to non-participants.

  • The outperformance of program participants versus non-participants on all measures widened the longer they were in the program.

"HCF is to be applauded for understanding that population health management is a long-term commitment," said Ben R. Leedle, Jr., Healthways President and CEO. "It is one thing to talk about well-being improvement; it's another to actually deliver peer-reviewed published results around enhancing health and lowering health-related costs. Today, HCF has scientific proof that shows our collaborative model is delivering strong outcomes."

About Healthways

Healthways (NAS: HWAY) 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 Australia's Largest Not-For-Profit Private Health Insurer Confirms Program Success and Announces Five-Year Renewal Contract with Healthways 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 HCF

HCF is Australia's largest not-for-profit health insurer, currently covering over 1.5 million Australians. HCF has exceeded the industry growth rate each year for the past five years, consistently pays back more in benefits from earned contributions than the industry average. As well as health insurance, HCF operates a niche life insurance business, HCF Life, a retirement and aged care accommodation business under the Manchester Unity brand, and seven specialist dental and eye care centres.

1 Source: Healthways Australia - HCF Health Metrics Reporting Q1 2013

2 Impact of a Chronic Disease Management Program on Hospital Admissions and Readmissions in an Australian Population with Heart Disease or Diabetes - G. Brent Hamar, Elizabeth Y. Rula, Aaron Wells, Carter Coberley, James E. Pope, and Shaun Larkin. Population Health Management. April 2013, 16(2): 125-131.

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Healthways
Chip Wochomurka, 615-614-4493
chip.wochomurka@healthways.com
or
HCF
Nicholas Owens, (02) 8920 0700
nowens@sefiani.au

KEYWORDS: Australia United States North America Australia/Oceania Tennessee

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