Blue Zones and Healthly Partner to Focus Healthcare on the Business of Reversing Disease

LOS ANGELES, July 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Zones, the world leader in longevity research and community well-being transformation, and Healthly, a unique clinical delivery system that has created a successful value-based economic model across 200 primary care physicians through the practice of lifestyle medicine, today announced a groundbreaking partnership designed to help people live better, longer lives. This strategic alliance merges Blue Zones' evidence-based approach to improving population well-being with Healthly's differentiated model for care.

Together, they have formed Blue Zones Health, a lifestyle medicine delivery model built on the value of generating more good years for patients, providers, and payers. Research shows lifestyle medicine is the most effective approach to reverse and manage chronic diseases, but our current healthcare system is set up to treat sickness and symptoms. Every few years, a new venture sets out to "disrupt healthcare," an industry that costs the United States $4.5 trillion a year. However, despite best efforts, healthcare stakeholders remain in siloes and disruptive transformation has been elusive. 

Blue Zones has had proven success in improving the health and well-being of large populations, with expertise applying the Blue Zones research and Life Radius^® model to improve health at the individual, organizational, and community levels. Healthly has had proven clinical success in improving patient health outcomes and reducing health costs, with expertise navigating the complexities of healthcare and insurance.

Blue Zones Health leverages the Blue Zones research and principles at the point of highest trust and lowest churn – in the pivotal relationship between patient and primary care provider. The partnership fuses lifestyle medicine-certified providers, environment and community, and financial alignment with payers. In this model, Blue Zones Health helps healthy people stay healthy, reduces the modifiable risks that lead to disease, and uses a lifestyle-first approach to treat and/or reverse existing disease, thereby reducing the cost of care. Together, Blue Zones and Healthly have the joint competencies required to deliver on the promise of more good years and better health in a sustainable and scalable model that rewards providers and reinforces their ability to care for patients.

Blue Zones Health:

• Brings together established players with experience in healthcare and community health
• Re-focuses healthcare to the business of reversing disease and improving health
• Is creating the working blueprint of "well care" (and not "sick care") that is sustainable in practice
• Will push forward market-driven change as federal policy slowly moves towards the same goals
• Will be the new name and identity for all current Healthly clinics and practices. (50 state virtual care is launching in January of 2025. In-person care is currently available throughout Southern California in Los Angeles, Inland Empire, Orange County, San Diego).

"We are thrilled to partner with Healthly to make the lifesaving Blue Zones Power 9^® principles even more accessible," said Ben Leedle, CEO of Blue Zones. "Our focus has been working outside clinic walls in applying the Blue Zones research to communities so cities, counties, and regions get healthier together. By joining forces with Healthly, we are merging medical care with the life-changing Blue Zones research to help people live better, longer. With Healthly's unparalleled clinical expertise in delivering lifestyle medicine with improved patient outcomes, we can bridge the current chasm between the health of the community with the care of the individual."

In May, Blue Zones and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) announced a multi-faceted partnership that, beginning in 2025, will exclusively enable physicians and medical professionals who are certified in the field of lifestyle medicine to pursue the added recognition of Blue Zones-Certified Physician or Blue Zones-Certified Health Professional.

"Blue Zones should be commended for understanding that evidence-based, therapeutic lifestyle behavior interventional training uniquely prepares clinicians to deliver the healthcare everyone deserves--care that addresses the root cause of chronic disease and restores health, rather than solely managing symptoms," ACLM CEO Susan Benigas said. "Ensuring that all primary care physicians affiliated with Blue Zones Health are certified in lifestyle medicine, with the option to also become Blue Zones-Certified, is a tremendous step toward growing the network of lifestyle medicine practitioners who are so urgently needed to help communities rein in unsustainable chronic disease trends and their associated costs. The stars are truly aligning with this partnership."

"The launch of Blue Zones Health is incredibly exciting. For years, Gallup research has highlighted the impact of personal and community well-being on one's health, finding that people with lower well-being experience poorer health outcomes," said Joe Daly, Managing Partner at Gallup. "Combining the research Gallup is conducting with Blue Zones, their principles and the growing field of lifestyle medicine has the potential to make a massive impact on well-being at the individual, organizational, and community levels."

Aligning with a Shared Mission

"At Healthly, we are committed to providing physicians and patients the tools, support, and incentives to reverse and treat sickness and diseases with lifestyle medicine," said Ben Quirk, CEO of Healthly. "This partnership with Blue Zones, with their proven expertise in reaching people and improving well-being at the population level, perfectly aligns with our mission to empower our patients and providers for better health, economic outcomes, and quality of life for all."

Interested providers, health systems, and patients who would like to take part in Blue Zones Health can submit information on bluezoneshealth.org to be kept up to date.

About Blue Zones

Blue Zones employs evidence-based ways to help people live better, longer. The company's work is rooted in explorations and research done by founder and National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner in blue zones regions around the world, where people live extraordinarily long and/or happy lives. The original research and findings were released in Buettner's bestselling books The Blue Zones Solution, The Blue Zones of Happiness, The Blue Zones, Thrive, and Blue Zones Kitchen, Blue Zones Challenge, Blue Zones American Kitchen—all published by National Geographic books. An Emmy Award-winning docuseries, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, was released on Netflix in 2023. Using original Blue Zones research, Blue Zones works with cities and counties to make healthy choices easier through permanent and semi-permanent changes to our human-made surroundings. Participating communities have experienced double-digit drops in obesity and tobacco use and have saved millions of dollars in healthcare costs. For more information, visit www.bluezones.com.

About Blue Zones™ Health

Blue Zones Health, formerly Healthly, is a primary care delivery model that focuses on treating the underlying causes of chronic disease and helping reduce dependence on medications and surgery. We offer care virtually nationwide and in-person at a growing number of clinic locations. Our approach to healthcare combines insights from 25+ years of Blue Zones' identification and research into the longest-lived peoples and application of that research to improve well-being at the population level, with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine's evidence-based physician training and certifications. In a peer reviewed study, we demonstrated our model's ability to meet the IHI Triple Aim of better patient outcomes, for lower cost, with greater patient satisfaction. Because our innovative model reduces the need for high-cost invasive care, we redeploy dollars into proactive prevention and disease reversal programs which allows us to offer our services at no or low additional cost for patients with participating insurances and Medicare. Our employed and affiliated physicians provide patients with personalized care pathways based on the Blue Zones Power 9^® principles, including support groups, classes, and access to experts such as dieticians and coaches. To find out more about how we empower patients, physicians, providers, and people to Live Better, Longer™, visit www.bluezoneshealth.org.

Contact:

Naomi Imatome-Yun
[email protected]

Fiona Hamann
[email protected]

SOURCE Blue Zones Health