Vitality Launches First-of-its-kind Health and Wellness Marketplace for Employers

CHICAGO, Oct. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Employers face a growing number of health and economic concerns including: the pandemic, rising costs of employee benefits, and meeting the needs of a multi-generational workforce where many will continue to work outside of the workplace environment for the foreseeable future. To help employers address these evolving challenges Vitality Group, a global health and wellness company committed to making people healthier, unveiled Vitality Gateway Flex a new way of boosting health and wellness engagement by offering more relevant choices to employees to meet their specific needs.

"As employees continue to work outside of the traditional workplace, it's critical that employers engage them in smarter ways to manage their health and wellness," said Tal Gilbert, CEO, Vitality USA. "Gateway Flex intuitively identifies the programs and partners that will have the greatest impact on the health of a member, and through behavioral engagement and rewards, nudges the member to participate. This eliminates any compromise between increasing choice and increasing cost, and does so in the easiest way possible."

The first program of its kind, Gateway Flex offers employers unprecedented flexibility with less complexity and almost zero wastage of resources, as they only pay for solutions that employees engage with. Part of Gateway, Vitality's behavior change platform, this marketplace program enables employers to personalize the health experience to meet the diverse and rapidly changing needs of their employees.

Employers select a list of partners – from a carefully vetted range of industry-leading coaching, lifestyle guidance, condition management and fitness applications that will be most impactful in meeting their employees' diverse health needs. Employees then select the services they need based on personalized recommendations and can use employer-allocated funds to purchase applications of their choice, and if they want to use additional partners, they can opt to pay using their own funds at a preferred rate.

Two additional features separate Gateway Flex from any other program in the market: 1) its simplicity – everything is done via one contract, and 2) its cost effectiveness – employers only pay for the services used. The new level of choice, ability to respond to employees' changing needs and resulting data on use and health impact, helps employers to achieve higher levels of engagement in health and wellness more cost-effectively.

Vitality Gateway Flex integrates strategic partners across the broader health environment to connect employees to the right resources at the right time to improve their health. Partners* include:

• BrightDime
• ClassPass
• DarioHealth
• Fitbit Premium
• FITT Finder
• HealthFitness
• MoveSpring
• Shapa
• SimpleTherapy
• USPM
• Vida Health
• Wellbeats

"Through Fitbit Premium's inclusion in the innovative Gateway Flex program, employers have the option to provide guidance, personalized experiences, data and insights to help employees increase physical activity, eat better, manage stress and improve sleep, which is especially important during these uncertain times," said Amy McDonough, SVP and General Manager, Fitbit Health Solutions. "Providing people with options to individualize how they manage their health is a cornerstone of this program and aligns to Fitbit's approach of meeting the needs of individuals wherever they are on their health journey."

How Vitality Gateway Flex works:

• With one contract, employers will have the ability to select (and remove) partners from the numerous options available on the Vitality Gateway Platform to tailor services based on what employees' need.

­-   This enables employers to avoid the often cumbersome and time-consuming negotiations from procurement to contracting. As there is only one contract with Vitality Gateway Flex, employers can easily bring new vendors online to quickly engage employees. Additionally, by easing the cost and complexity of procurement and ongoing vendor management, a big pain point is removed from the equation: the complexity of managing and measuring vendor performance.

• Employees are guided to providers that best meet their health needs based on their health data and information.

­-   If employees prefer a solution not on the selected partner list, they can choose to pay for them using their own currency, ensuring access to the broadest choice of solutions in the market.

• Employers only pay for solutions within their budget and that their employees engage with, allowing greater control over costs, with virtually zero wastage.
• The Gateway Platform also offers data-driven insights around partner usage and overall employee health to forecast what programs and services should be offered.

"ClassPass empowers companies of all sizes to boost the morale, engagement and health of their employees through fitness and wellness benefits," said Nicole Wolfe, Head of Corporate Programs, ClassPass. "Vitality Gateway Flex provides us with a fantastic opportunity to broaden our reach and connect with employers who want to invest in the wellbeing of their teams. We look forward to introducing more employees to our catalog of on-demand, livestream, and in-person classes and working with the team at Vitality to make this launch a success."

About Vitality Group

Guided by a core purpose of making people healthier, Vitality is the leader in improving health to unlock outcomes that matter. By blending industry-leading smart tech, data, incentives and behavioral science, we inspire healthy changes in individuals and their organizations. As one of the largest wellness companies in the world, Vitality brings a dynamic and diverse perspective through successful partnerships with the most forward-thinking insurers and employers. More than 20 million people in 24 markets engage in the Vitality program. For more information, visit vitalitygroup.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

*Vitality collaborates with a multitude of organizations including those partners list in this release.

SOURCE Vitality Group