Launch of Care Connector by StayWell Strengthens Member Experience and Streamlines Workflow for Payer Organizations

YARDLEY, Pa., April 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- StayWell, a health empowerment company, today announced the launch of Care Connector™, a personalized member education application for payers. The application integrates directly into member management systems and empowers care managers to deliver timely, trusted patient education content within the existing workflow, including topics on wellness and disease management. Care Connector complements other health and wellness innovations from StayWell, such as the My StayWell™ Platform, Krames On Demand^®, and award-winning content marketing solutions.

"For payers seeking to strengthen relationships with their members and provide an increasingly personalized experience, Care Connector delivers direct access to award-winning Krames content," said Nicole Latimer, Chief Executive Officer of StayWell. "Leveraging Care Connector will help health plans inform and engage members, and facilitate access to accurate, timely, easy-to-understand health content."

Care Connector also offers workflow efficiency functionality, such as folders and adding favorites. Care managers can easily see which health education resources have been previously shared with the member and can thoughtfully build the member's health knowledge and plan the next steps of their health journey.

With Care Connector, payer organizations will be able to:

• Offer resources to help holistically address a member's conditions, medications, and lifestyle, including video that enhances health literacy and engagement
• Deliver actionable education that encourages members to make behavior changes and live healthier lifestyles
• Lighten the IT lift by eliminating time-consuming, manual quarterly updates

In addition, to further support health plan members on their path to better health, StayWell is launching its easier-to-understand collection of health education content. Health literacy is a serious concern across the United States, with the National Assessment of Adult Literacy revealing that only 12% of U.S. adults have proficient health literacy. Building on its extensive digital library of Krames health education resources, StayWell's easier-to-understand collection enables payers and providers to instantly access and share personalized health information through the Krames On-Demand solution.

Written at no greater than a fifth-grade reading level, with additional resources offered in an image-only format, StayWell's easier-to-understand collection ensures members have access to actionable content, to help improve desired behaviors and outcomes.

To learn more about StayWell's solutions for payer organizations, visit www.staywell.com.

About StayWell
StayWell is a health empowerment company that enables populations to improve health outcomes through the science of behavior change. For more than 40 years, the company has been a pioneer in employer well-being and patient education solutions that lower risks and reduce costs. StayWell has earned numerous top industry honors for its population health programs, including the C. Everett Koop National Health Award and the Web Health Award. The company has also received Utilization Review Accreditation Committee (URAC) and National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) accreditation for several of its programs. StayWell is majority-owned by Healthcare Services & Solutions, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. The company is headquartered in Yardley, Pa., with additional locations including St. Paul, Minn. and Portland, Ore. To learn more, visit www.staywell.com or connect with StayWell on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

About Merck
For more than a century, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world - including cancer, cardio-metabolic diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer's disease and infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA
This news release of The StayWell Company, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (the "company") includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company's 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC's Internet site (www.sec.gov).

About Vestar Capital Partners
Vestar Capital Partners is a leading U.S. middle-market private equity firm specializing in management buyouts and growth capital investments. Vestar invests and collaborates with incumbent management teams and private owners to build long-term enterprise value, with a focus on Consumer, Healthcare, and Business Services & Industrial Products. Since its founding in 1988, Vestar funds have completed more than 80 investments in companies – as well as more than 200 add-on acquisitions – with a total value of approximately $50 billion. For more information, please visit www.vestarcapital.com.

SOURCE StayWell

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https://www.staywell.com