Healthways Announces 5-Year Expansion and Extension of Relationship with Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Healthways HWAY announced a five-year expansion and extension of its seven-year relationship with Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in support of the Healthiest State Initiative announced today by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. The nation's first statewide comprehensive well-being improvement program, the Healthiest State Initiative is designed to help Iowa become the number one ranked state for well-being as measured by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index within five years. This business-led, government-endorsed effort is expected to help Iowans live longer, healthier and more productive lives, while also enabling the state to redirect billions of dollars currently spent on healthcare to efforts that will further grow the state's economy. Wellmark and Healthways will implement a centerpiece of Iowa's Healthiest State Initiative, a 10-community Blue Zones Project™. Blue Zones, of which there are only five worldwide and only one in the US, are geographically defined places where people live measurably longer, happier and more productive lives with lower rates of chronic disease and a higher quality of life. The Iowa Blue Zones Project represents the largest comprehensive well-being improvement initiative ever launched.