As we close out 2019, we reflect not only on our successes this year but also on what GuideWell has accomplished in its first five years as a health solutions company.
When GuideWell entered the market in 2014, we employed approximately 6, 500 people and operated in a handful of states.
Today, GuideWell is made up of more than 13, 000 employees and serves 27 million people across 35 states, plus Washington D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Over the past five years, GuideWell has demonstrated the ability to innovate, collaborate, diversify and respond in the face of unprecedented health care industry transformation while staying true to our mission of helping people and communities achieve better health.
Guidewell is more than a health insurance company; we are a health solutions enterprise. With five distinct business units (Florida Blue, GuideWell Health, GuideWell Source, GuideWell Connect and PopHealthCare) GuideWell is a family of forward-thinking companies focused on reimagining how health care can and should be delivered.
With that, here are 10 big wins for GuideWell in 2019:
1. Onlife Health Acquisition—GuideWell Connect acquired the Nashville-based health and wellness services company in February. Onlife delivers digital member engagement and reward programs to clients through technology that is powered by analytics and behavioral science. Onlife’s offerings complement GuideWell Connect’s current solutions and enhance its ability to create a seamless, end-to-end digital experience for health plan customers.
2. GuideWell Source Wins Jurisdiction H—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in June that Novitas Solutions, a GuideWell Source company, was re-awarded the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) Jurisdiction H contract, which covers Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. As the MAC, Novitas will continue to perform administrative services processing and pay claims for both Parts A and B of the Medicare program. Jurisdiction H is the largest of the 12 jurisdictions, spanning seven states and representing 14 percent of the market.
3. GuideWell Innovation Center Programming—Our Innovation Center team has provided enormous opportunities for local and national organizations to partner with GuideWell to grow their unique business models that address important health care needs. These efforts include the Block by Block Florida Food Insecurity Challenge seeking scalable ideas to eliminate food insecurity; the Caring for Caregivers Health Innovation Challenge to find sustainable approaches to reduce or eliminate the complex issues faced by family caregivers; and the launch of the 2020 Scale-Up Accelerator: Aging in Place, which will provide coaching and financing to innovative health technology companies focused on helping older adults live in their own homes and communities safely, independently and comfortably.
4. Partnership With Lyft—We formed a partnership with the transportation network to offer our Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance plan members car rides to doctor appointments. Millions of Americans miss medical appointments each year because they do not have reliable transportation. These missed appointments have a dramatic impact on the health care system.
5. Community Specialists in the Florida Blue Centers—New this year, we began placing community specialists, with backgrounds in social work, in a number of our Centers. These community specialists help in a multitude of ways: by addressing basic needs and social determinants of health; nurturing trusting relationships that connect members to the right services at the right time in the right place; and providing community members with a sense of belonging and a superior, personalized experience.
6. Launch of GuideWell Careers Website— In an effort to continue to attract top talent, GuideWell launched a new careers site, Careers.GuideWell.com. The new site provides candidates with an improved and comprehensive job search experience that is personalized with recommended jobs and content that adapts to the candidate’s interests.
7. Community Support and Foundation Impact—Every year, we are committed to providing volunteer and financial support to nonprofit organizations across Florida that align with our mission of helping people and communities achieve better health. This year we collectively contributed $29.8 million and 60,000 volunteer hours to charitable causes.
8. Sanitas Expansion—Sanitas Medical Center, a strategic alliance between GuideWell and Sanitas, continues to expand its footprint. Through our partnership, we launched Florida’s first Sanitas Medical Center in late 2015 in the Miami-Dade area and have grown to 23 clinics across the state. In 2019, we began adding 11 new Sanitas locations in Florida to increase access to this unique personalized care model. Sanitas Medical Centers address multicultural medical needs and disparities in care by bringing high-quality, culturally-relevant health solutions into our diverse communities.
9. PopHealthCare Now Serving 10,000 Members—In 2019, GuideWell’s subsidiary PopHealthCare, which is focused on providing in-home care of individuals with complex health care needs, reached a big milestone by enrolling over 10,000 members since inception. These members receive personalized medical, behavioral, palliative and social care in the comfort of their own homes as needed. PopHealthCare clinicians work with members’ regular doctors, specialists and family to keep them well and at home. By integrating and coordinating care, PopHealthCare addresses medical costs, quality and revenue challenges associated with high-risk populations.
10. NACD NXT Diversity Award—In September, our Board of Directors received a prestigious honor from the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) for our commitment to diversity and inclusion. The NACD NXT award recognizes exemplary board leadership practices that promote greater diversity and inclusion.
GuideWell would not have achieved these successes and many others in 2019 without the commitment, passion and talent of our dedicated employees. In addition, we want to recognize our business partners and the millions of people who have entrusted us to provide health care and related services to them and their families.
Thank you for a great year, and we look forward to the opportunities ahead in 2020 as we continue to transform the future of health care.