BlueShield promotes healthy shopping through digital nutrition program

LATHAM, N.Y. - BlueShield of Northeastern New York on Monday unveiled HealthyLife Rewards, a digital nutrition program powered by NutriSavings that provides educational tools and incentives to more than 50,000 subscriber households in the New York Capital Region.

 

"As a community-based health plan, we know that you need proactive tools and supportive environments to change behavior," said Kirk Panneton, regional executive and medical director at BlueShield. "HealthyLife Rewards encourages shoppers to select healthy foods and rewards them for making sure those items end up in their shopping cart."

 

HealthyLife Rewards offers BlueShield subscribers and their families a potential $500 in annual cash back rewards for purchasing healthy foods at grocery stores, including local chains Hannaford Supermarkets and Price Chopper and its Market 32 Supermarkets.

 

"Hannaford is celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Guiding Stars, which identifies good, better and best nutritious choices on our shelves and on our Hannaford brand products," said Julie Greene, manager of Healthy Living for Hannaford. "HealthyLife Rewards, combined with information sources like our in-store registered dieticians offering free classes and help gluten-free, weight management and other topics, and the credible resource of Guiding Stars, give shoppers tools to meet their needs and live healthier. This initiative connects well with Hannaford's long, proud history of helping consumers with fresh, nutritious products and credible information sources."

 

"When Price Chopper became the first supermarket in the nation to introduce the NuVal Nutritional Scoring System, in 2009, we were hopeful that it would soon become accessible to consumers across the nation," said Mona Golub, VP public relations and consumer services. "By bolstering the combined efforts of product manufacturers, supermarkets and health-care providers with online and mobile app access to rewards and incentives, NuVal scores, recipes and tips, NutriSavings has effectively strengthened the network of support for BlueShield subscribers in this region who aspire to make healthy choices."

 

Discussions are currently ongoing with additional local and regional supermarket chains. 

 

The program is simple: Food items are scored based on their nutritional value and an average score for each shopping trip is calculated. At any time, individuals can deposit their rewards into their checking account or redeem as cash. 

 

Members also have access to a database of resources, including healthy recipes, articles and tips, and news on the latest nutrition science to help them make healthy decisions. Over time, members can look back on their shopping score history to review and improve healthy shopping habits.

 

HealthyLife Rewards was rolled out as a pilot to BlueShield employees – who found it highly useful - this past fall and is now available to BlueShield commercial subscribers. 

 

In the first four months of the pilot program, 44% of BlueShield's eligible employees have engaged in this innovative wellness program logging more than 720 shopping trips; 32% of those shopping trips were recognized as healthy, according to the nutritional value scores associated with the items purchased.    

 

HealthyLife Rewards is powered by NutriSavings, a Massachusetts-based company whose mission is to improve the health of the U.S. workforce and reduce the rising costs of health care through better nutrition.

 

"We accomplish our mission by providing relevant and personalized education to help members make informed grocery decisions, along with discounts to make healthy food more affordable," commmented Niraj Jetly, COO and chief information officer at NutriSavings. "HealthyLife Rewards shares our mission in making its subscribers and families healthy."