Welltok Inc., a Denver provider of web-based personal health management incentive plans, has a new deal with Highmark Inc. to provide digital healthcare services to 514,000 seniors enrolled in Highmarks Medicare Advantage program in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Pittsburgh-based Highmark is the fourth-largest Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan.

Welltok also has secured $33.7 million in new funding the company will use to grow its customer base in four market segmentsgovernment health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, commercial health plans, large self-insured providers and employers and healthcare providers. Welltok will also use the funds to add new features to its CafWell Health platform.

Investors include New Enterprise Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners, Georgian Partners, Emergence Capital, InterWest Partners, Sigma Partners, HLM Venture Partners, Flare Capital Partners among others.

Welltok, which launched in 2009, has raised a total of $163 million in venture capital to date.

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In addition to the influx of new capital, Welltok has secured a $13 million revolving credit line from Silicon Valley Bank.

Welltoks CafeWell Health product is a software-as-a-service health management platform that enables health insurers and providers to offer consumers personalized health programs and reward consumers that achieve their health goals. Incentives for meeting health goals can vary from insurance premium discounts and lower co-payments to cash rebates and gift cards.

Our plan is to make these market segments a larger part of our business and build out our technology platform with more health management solutions, says Welltok chief marketing officer Michelle Synder.

Highmark will use Welltoks CafWell platform to design Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO plans for its members. Benefits offered through the plans are approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Consumers enrolled in Highmarks program select their benefits, allowing them to tailor the plan to their needs, a Highmark spokesperson says.

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Highmark will also reach out to members that have risk factors and health conditions, or complications that could exacerbate their health if left unchecked to encourage them to collaborate in developing a health plan. Highmark officials did not say what types of incentives they plan to offer Medicare Advantage members.

In addition to Highmark, Welltok has also partnered with Magallen Health Inc., Aetna, Inc. and UnitedHealthcare.

Welltok creates personalized health management plans using information from health insurers about its members health and previous medical claims, plus consumers responses to questions about their overall health and health goals, such as smoking cessation, better managing stress or a disease such as diabetes. Consumers are asked questions about their health and health goals when logging onto CafWell Health through a desktop computer or mobile device. Welltok supplements this information with behavioral demographic data to create an individual consumer profile health insurers and providers can use to personalize individual health management plans.

A personalized health management plan for a consumer looking to manage her diabetes, for example, can include content about how diet affects the disease and provide tips for healthier eating to better manage blood sugar levels.

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To encourage consumers to meet their health goals, health insurers can offer rewards through the CafWell Health platform. Health insurers can vary incentives offered by individual, while keeping the monetary value of the different incentives the same. This way individuals can be offered incentives that will motivate them to reach their health goals without creating an imbalance in the value of the incentives offered, Synder says.

 

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