Blue Shield of California announced that mindfulness and meditation app Headspace is now available to members through its Wellvolution program. Headspace offers hundreds of tools and more than 1,000 exercises to reduce stress and improve one’s mental well-being. The app joins the extensive resources offered on Blue Shield’s Wellvolution, a digitally based lifestyle medicine and health platform provided in collaboration with Solera Health that can be personalized to each member’s individual health needs and preferences.
The addition of Headspace expands Wellvolution to now include behavioral health support. Blue Shield members already enjoying Wellvolution’s lifestyle medicine service can now add Headspace to their support system with no additional cost to them. Blue Shield of California continues to build its behavioral health program for its members and the community that now includes expanded telehealth options and BlueSky, the health plan’s multi-year commitment to support youth mental health throughout the state.
Headspace research has demonstrated that the app’s guided meditations can reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep, and increase focus, self-esteem, and resilience. The company has found:
- 10 days of Headspace utilization resulted in 14% decrease in stress.
- Eight weeks of using Headspace resulted in a 31% decrease in anxiety symptoms and 46% decrease in depressive symptoms.
Wellvolution is Blue Shield’s digitally based lifestyle medicine and health platform that can be personalized for individual health needs and preferences. Created in collaboration with Solera Health, Wellvolution provides members guided on-demand access to a tailored network of clinically proven apps using lifestyle to prevent, treat, and even reverse disease. It is available to most Blue Shield members with their benefit plan at no additional cost and is an example of how the non-profit health plan is reimagining health for individuals, families, and communities.
Blue Shield of California strives to create a health care system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. Blue Shield of California is a tax paying, non-profit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with over 4.5 million members, over 7,500 employees and more than $21 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid, and Medicare health care service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $150 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last four years to have an impact on California communities.
Headspace was created with one mission in mind: to improve the health and happiness of the world. Reaching 70 million users in 190 countries, Headspace was one of the first meditation apps in the world and remains a leader in mindfulness and mental training. Headspace is committed to advancing the field of mindfulness through clinically validated research, with one of the largest research pipelines of any digital health and wellness company. Headspace operates a B2B business (Headspace for Work) to offer its mindfulness products and services to more than 2,200 companies, such as Starbucks, Adobe, Hyatt, and Unilever, to help them build healthier, more productive cultures and higher performing organizations. Headspace supports government entities like New York State and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to offer digital mental health tools. Headspace partners with many of the world’s most-recognizable brands, including Apple, Sesame Street, Spotify, Amazon, and Nike as well as Netflix for a three part mindfulness series that premiered in 2021. Headspace has been recognized as TIME100’s Most Influential Companies of 2021, Fast Company’s 10 most innovative social good companies of 2021 and World’s Most Innovative Companies. Other accolades include Apple’s Best of 2018, Samsung’s Best of 2019 and one of CB Insights’ top digital health companies, along with being selected for seven Webby Awards in podcasts, health, and fitness.
Solera Health is committed to changing lives by guiding people seamlessly to better health solutions, while providing payers and employers the tools to manage provider organizations and outcomes across conditions. Solera’s platform provides a marketplace of curated networks of digital and community point solutions focused on intensive, evidence-based lifestyle, behavioral and social interventions to impact the most prevalent and costly chronic conditions. Solera strategically matches consumers to their best-fit solution and helps keep them engaged for successful health outcomes.
This was reported by Blue Shield of California on October 26, 2021.
Contact information: Jonna Constantine, Communications, Blue Shield of California, 601 12th Street, Oakland, California 94607; 510-607-2359; Email: media@blueshieldca.com; Website: https://www.blueshieldca.com/
Contact information: Steven Bram, Senior Manager, Public Relations & Influencer Marketing, Headspace, 2415 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, California 90404; Email: press@headspace.com; Website: https://www.headspace.com/
Contact information: Matt Maurel, Media Contact for Solera Health, 512-387-3440; Email: matt.maurel@anthonybarnum.com; Website: www.soleranetwork.com
