Blue Shield of California (BSC) created its Wellvolution platform, a collection of wellbeing apps, with the intention of helping members with their diet, exercise, sleep and overall health. But until last month, it has only been available for its commercial and Medicare members and not its Medi-Cal members.
There is a lot of administrative burden when it comes to the approval process for accepting Medicaid for wellbeing programs. For BSC, it took over two years. Yet, the Medicaid population could strongly benefit from these kinds of services. For example, about 29% of Medicaid enrollees have a mental illness and 21% have a substance use disorder, compared to 21% and 16% of privately-insured people, respectively, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“It was really critical for us to expand to this population, knowing that there is a higher prevalence of some of these conditions, both mental health conditions as well as some of the physical health conditions: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity,” said Angie Kalousek Ebrahimi, senior director of lifestyle medicine at BSC. “The need for additional access is even more critical. The digital programs that we offer kind of leveled the playing field a little bit for Medi-Cal members because they can access these programs through their smartphone and get care 24/7 with health coaching, with the immediate and intensive care that they need.”
The Wellvolution platform includes access to Headspace Health’s solutions for mental health and mindfulness, Virta Health’s solutions for diabetes reversal, Clickotine to help members quit smoking and Betr Health for weight loss.
Headspace Health, which includes mindfulness and meditation from Headspace and mental health coaching from Ginger, is one of Wellvolution’s most popular programs. Wellvolution has about 110,000 members enrolled (including about 380 Medi-Cal members since launching at the end of January), of which 40,000 have signed up for Headspace Health. A case study on the mental health company found that with Ginger, 80% of BSC members with moderate to severe depression at intake had improved symptoms and 76% of members with moderate to severe anxiety at intake had improved symptoms. When it came to Headspace’s meditation and mindfulness content, 90% of members viewed their health plan more “favorably” after gaining access to Headspace.
Working with Wellvolution is just the second relationship Headspace Health has with a Medicaid plan, with the first starting in 2021 with AmeriHealth Caritas of Washington, D.C. The company is hoping to work with more Medicaid programs in the future, said Russ Glass, CEO of Headspace Health.
“We know that Medicaid enrollees have the highest overall prevalence of moderate to severe mental illness,” Glass said in an email. “Reaching these populations will ensure that we’re serving more diverse communities and providing more equitable access to mental healthcare to people all over the country.”
Blue Shield of California hopes to continue improving its Wellvolution program for its Medi-Cal members, Ebrahimi said. It’s working with community resource centers to get more Medi-Cal members to sign up for Wellvolution, as some have problems with digital literacy. This year, the payer will also translate its entire Wellvolution program into Spanish. The companies on the Wellvolution platform will have providers and coaches that are Spanish-speaking as well.
“I think the two words that we are focused on right now are access and navigation,” she said. “Number one, that we have the tools that people can use when they need them … but also that when they go to look for them, that they can actually find them.”
Picture: Benjavisa, Getty Images
