HealthAmerica expands social media platform through relationship with CaféWell

HealthAmerica announced today the expansion of its social networking community devoted solely to the health and well-being of its members through a relationship with CaféWell. CaféWell is a social media company changing the way millions of people manage their health by making it easy, productive and rewarding. This union is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania, pioneering HealthAmerica in social media within the health insurance industry.

As part of the engagement strategy to connect to members, CaféWell's parent company, WellTok Inc., created a new mobile application, allowing instant connection of individuals with similar user profiles and access to health information, healthy recipes and wellness challenges.

HealthAmerica has been piloting the CaféWell program with several of its large accounts since January and is launching CaféWell to all commercial group and individual plan members starting September 1, 2011.

"We know that social networking has the power to connect people like never before," said Mary Lou Osborne, chief operating officer for HealthAmerica. "HealthAmerica is committed to creating positive associations with health and wellness, encouraging healthy and active behavior, and promoting member engagement and satisfaction. Offering this medium is one way we are trying to create an alignment with our members' current and future needs."

CaféWell provides consumers with a single online destination for all their health-related needs, including social networking, expert advice, fun challenges and reliable information. Unlike general social networking sites, CaféWell allows users to control the degree to which their identity is shared, with complete anonymity as the default. To inspire and motivate, CaféWell rewards active users with profile badges, and prizes such as gift cards, iPods and fitness-related items.

With CaféWell HealthAmerica members can:

• Talk privately about their health concerns.
• Chat anonymously and securely in discussion groups about chronic conditions and health issues.
• Get answers from discussion group experts on popular topics like diet, exercise, how to get a good's night sleep, and when to give your child antibiotics, to name a few.
• Earn reward points for prizes, while reaching personal goals in individual or group challenges with friends and family.
• Connect to an extensive collection of health care articles and other resources continuously updated and added by a team of experts.

New mobile application adds convenience for members on the go

CaféWell's new mobile application makes it more convenient for consumers to manage their health while on the go. Using their iPhones^®, members can:

• Log their activity toward a challenge, before leaving the running trail, gym or yoga studio.
• Check CaféWell's leader boards to see who's making the most progress on each challenge.
• See what CaféWell friends are doing online, from posting comments, to logging activity, to making new connections.
• Read and respond to private messages from CaféWell friends.
• Check their CaféWell Points, which are redeemable for prizes and discounts.

"In today's world, everyone uses their smart phones and other social media avenues," said Osborne. "HealthAmerica understands the growing presence of social media in the marketplace and realizes the need for this type of technological advance as a member touch point."