Global well-being improvement leader Healthways (NASDAQ: HWAY) announced
today that it has been awarded a contract to provide Australia’s largest
health coaching program, Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service®
(Get Healthy Service), in New South Wales, Tasmania, the Australian
Capital Territory, Queensland and South Australia for the next three
years. Responsibility for the management and delivery of the services
will be transferred to Healthways, which was selected after a
competitive procurement process and will begin service delivery
beginning in January 2014. Developed by the New South Wales government
as Australia’s first government-run, individually tailored health
coaching service, the Get Healthy Service will be available to
approximately 10 million individuals over the age of 18.
The Get Healthy Service is a telephone-based health coaching service
aimed at supporting adults to make lifestyle changes to improve their
healthy eating and levels of physical activity and to help reach and
maintain a healthy weight. Qualified health coaches provide information
and ongoing, personalized support designed to help individuals achieve
lasting behavior change in these areas. Already available in New South
Wales, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland, the
service will be expanded to South Australia in January.
Launched in 2009, the Get Healthy Service is a joint Australian state
and territory initiative under the National Partnership Agreement on
Preventive Health. The partnership seeks to address the rising
prevalence of lifestyle-related chronic disease by laying the
foundations for healthy behaviors in the daily lives of Australians
through settings such as communities, early childhood education and care
environments, schools and workplaces, supported by national social
marketing campaigns.
“Promoting good health is fundamental to Australia’s future social and
economic well-being,” said Louise Sylvan, chief executive officer of The
Australian National Preventive Health Agency. “The Australian Government
and state and territory governments continue to work hard to address the
behavioral and environmental challenges that have contributed to the
significant rise in obesity over the past decades. Evaluation of Get
Healthy Service, the largest health coaching service available to the
Australian population, shows that people want to succeed in protecting
their health and that prevention works.”
The escalating prevalence of chronic diseases, estimated to be
responsible for around 80% of the total burden of disease in Australia,
was the impetus behind creating the Get Healthy Service. Research has
proven not only that healthy eating, physical activity and maintaining a
healthy weight can prevent and even reverse chronic illness, but also
that telephone and web-based coaching are highly successful in helping
individuals overcome the challenge of creating and sustaining these
important lifestyle changes.
Making lifestyle changes is often easier said than done, and the journey
can be challenging. The Get Healthy Service has therefore been developed
to support people to make these lifestyle changes. Healthways’ ability
to advance the goals of the Get Healthy Service is reflected in its
extensive history of scientific research and innovation in well-being
improvement through behavior change, its proven track record of
delivering high-impact programs, its demonstrated commitment to high
quality clinical care and its ability to scale programs to very large
sizes, which it has already done successfully in the Australian market.
“The globalization of health is gaining momentum, driven by offerings
that have proven utility no matter what nation or market is involved.
Healthways’ Well-Being Improvement Solution is one of those offerings,”
said Peter Choueiri, president of Healthways International.
“Internationally as well as in the United States, organizations are
recognizing the value that well-being improvement offers individuals,
employers, government entities, health insurers and other organizations,
and it has become a tool to unite organizations in the common goal of
reducing healthcare’s economic burden.”
Healthways currently serves more than 1.6 million people in Australia,
operating programs for public and private health organizations and
employers, including, for the past three years, chronic disease
management services under the New South Wales Connecting Care in the
Community program. Early in July, Healthways announced the five-year
renewal of its contract with Hospitals Contributions Fund (HCF),
Australia’s largest not-for-profit private health insurer, to provide
the My Health Guardian program, the longest, largest and most successful
health management program in Australia. Later that same month,
Healthways announced its partnership with HCF and telecommunications
giant Telstra to roll out the largest telemonitoring program in
Australia.
“Australia is not alone in facing the impacts of unhealthy behaviors,”
said Dr. Linda Swan, managing director of Healthways Australia. “By
2020, chronic diseases are expected to account for almost three-quarters
of all deaths worldwide, yet these diseases are largely preventable —
even reversible. Changing behaviors is complex but important work, work
we’re proud to do in partnerships with companies and governments that
are similarly committed to creating a healthier world, one person at a
time. The addition of the Get Healthy Service to our diverse portfolio
of programs, developed over the past six years, reflects our position as
a leader in providing evidence based health coaching programs with
tangible results across Australia.”
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 45 million people on four continents. Learn more at www.healthways.com
and www.healthwaysaustralia.com.
Copyright Business Wire 2014