Guidewell Connect, a consumer engagement company that shares a parent company (Guidewell) with health insurer Florida Blue, has acquired Onlife Health, a health and wellness technology platform, from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee and Cambia Health Solutions. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Onlife offers member engagement services that include wellness and chronic condition management programs, via both its My Journey app and other non-digital modalities.
“Onlife has one of the strongest wellness engagement platforms in the industry and the addition of their solutions will extend GuideWell Connect’s platform further along the health care consumer journey,” Scott Paddock, president and CEO of GuideWell Connect, said in a statement. “We are excited to bring Onlife’s expertise and capabilities in the personalized health content and navigation realm to our consumer engagement hub, providing our clients with additional value via a unified customer experience from beginning to end, ultimately improving engagement and retention.”
What’s the impact
Onlife’s offerings include incentive programs, health coaching via phone and secure messaging, biometric screenings and health assessments, self-guided digital education courses and Onlife Sync, which integrates with more than 100 fitness tracking devices and apps.
The company was founded in 1996. In 2005, it was acquired by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee.
Post-acquisition, Onlife will be available to health plan and employer clients in 19 states, according to a statement from the companies. Guidewell intends to keep Onlife’s management intact. It will become a subsidiary of Guidewell Connect.
What’s the trend
Guidewell has been interested in digital member engagement for some time. In mid-2016 Guidewell and Atlanta-based Sharecare announced a joint venture to build apps for payers. However, nothing really came out of that partnership and, according to Guidewell, the JV is no longer active.
"While we did explore a partnership with Sharecare in the past, at this point GuideWell does not have an active relationship with the company," the company told MobiHealthNews in an email.
On the record
“We are thrilled to join GuideWell Connect,” Mark McConnell, president and CEO of Onlife, said in a statement. “Integrating Onlife’s user-friendly engagement portal with GuideWell Connect’s platform will allow us to reach a larger audience as we guide health care consumers to ‘the next right thing to do’ at each stage of their health care journeys. Our clients benefit from a personalized wellness experience that encourages, supports and inspires healthier living.”
