ATLANTA and JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GuideWell Group Inc. (GuideWell), the parent to a family of forward-thinking companies focused on transforming health care, and Sharecare, the digital health company helping people manage all their healthcare in one place, today announced they have signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture to enable more streamlined, engaging and effective connectivity between health plans and their members. The companies’ goal is to improve access, empower consumers and ultimately deliver better health outcomes and overall experience. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of 2016, subject to completion of customary documentation and satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
“GuideWell’s partnership with Sharecare is designed to fundamentally transform how individuals connect with and navigate the health care system and how they leverage tools and information to manage their own health,” said René Lerer, M.D., president of GuideWell.
“Sharecare’s personalized engagement solution is second-to-none. The combination of its expertise in concert with our GuideWell Connect subsidiary’s member outreach and marketing capabilities, in addition to our 70 years serving Floridians’ health insurance needs, will be a formidable force in today’s consumer-driven healthcare reality,” Lerer added. “Together we will develop programs, tools and techniques that provide an end-to-end, interactive digital platform that will simplify healthcare for consumers. As a result, the joint venture will have exclusive rights to offer the co-developed payer digital solution to health plan customers.”
Starting in early 2017, GuideWell will equip millions of Floridians covered by its health insurance business with Sharecare’s fully integrated suite of best-in-class digital health products and services, including its scientifically validated health risk assessment, the RealAge test, its award-winning symptom checker, AskMD, its stress management technology and more.
“While digital innovation in healthcare has incredible momentum, additional fragmentation of the health system is often a by-product, which negatively impacts not only doctors and insurance companies, but also - and most importantly - people who need healthcare,” said Jeff Arnold, chairman and CEO of Sharecare. “GuideWell shares our philosophy that we must disrupt the industry without disenfranchising the system, and enable consumers to access all their health information in one place. By working together, Sharecare and GuideWell are uniquely positioned to provide simple, effective solutions at critical mass, and in context of members’ health plans, relationships with providers and personal goals.”
Through the joint venture, GuideWell and Sharecare will focus on digital innovation and co-develop payer-centric offerings within the Sharecare platform to enable effective and engaging member communications. Over time, the GuideWell/Sharecare joint venture will commercialize the platform with these integrated payer tools for other health plans to improve clinical outcomes and positively impact overall health care costs.
About GuideWell
GuideWell is the parent of a family of forward-thinking companies focused on transforming health care. The GuideWell companies include Florida’s largest health insurer; a healthcare delivery company; a healthcare consumer marketing company; and an administrative and claims processing company for state and federal health care programs. For more information, visit www.guidewell.com.
About Sharecare
Sharecare is a health and wellness engagement solution providing people with personalized resources to help them live their healthiest lives. Nearly 40 million people have shared more than 5 billion data points about their health status and habits with Sharecare, which uses that information to create a comprehensive health profile allowing users to access all of their health resources in one place, and dynamically connect to the knowledge, evidence-based programs and health professionals they need.
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