Contact:
Dana Linnane
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Phone: 269.969.2301
E-mail: dana.linnane@wkkf.org
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) today announced an impact investment in SeeChange Health through its Mission Driven Investing (MDI) platform. SeeChange Health is an innovator in wellness-centered health care coverage to improve health and reduce health care costs. WKKF’s investment will accelerate the company’s efforts to develop and launch new incentive-based products that actively engage individuals in managing their own health.
“We are excited about the investment in SeeChange Health and about being a partner to improve the health of vulnerable families. The company’s focus on prevention in the midst of rising health care costs and significant changes in our health care system aligns well with the foundation’s work to ensure that families have access to quality care and to the community factors that improve health,” said Dr. Gail Christopher, vice president of program strategy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
“Health care coverage today too often focuses on individuals after they’re sick. We take a different approach,” said Martin Watson, CEO of SeeChange Health. “Our emphasis is on early detection of serious conditions through innovative tools and programs. This mission is a natural fit for the Kellogg Foundation, an organization that has long fostered creativity in health care with an emphasis on prevention.”
SeeChange Health operates on a model that offers financial rewards to members, such as reduced out-of-pocket expenses or contributions to an health incentive account, when members take specific preventative health actions, like diabetes screening and blood pressure checks, to detect chronic health conditions early. Members are incentivized to be proactive participants in their health care, rather than reactive patients to chronic conditions or symptoms.
Tony Berkley, WKKF’s director of Mission Driven Investing, said, “SeeChange Health has demonstrated that health care can be affordable for employers and employees when the focus is on prevention of chronic diseases that are sweeping across our country and especially affect low-income families. We’re confident that this investment will advance our mission to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable children and families, as well as set a new standard for the health care industry.”
SeeChange Health has become the fastest growing full-service health insurance company for small to mid-sized employers in California and Colorado, targeting businesses that were not yet offering health benefits, but looking for ways to improve the health and well-being of their employees.
Through its MDI platform, the Kellogg Foundation has allocated $100 million to invest in businesses around the globe that align with its mission of improving the lives of vulnerable children and families through better health, education and financial outcomes.
About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.
WKKF is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti.
Imprint Capital Advisors advised the Kellogg Foundation in this transaction. To learn more, follow WKKF on twitter at @wk_kellogg_fdn. For more information on the foundation’s mission driven investing portfolio, visit mdi.wkkf.org.
About SeeChange Health
SeeChange Health is the leader in value-based benefit design solutions for employers—delivering plans and services to create better health and quality of life for employees, increase workforce productivity and lower health care. SeeChange Health’s unique approach encourages individuals to play an active role in the management of their own health to prevent, detect and treat today’s most serious health conditions. SeeChange Health Insurance provides value-based benefit plans to fully-insured small and mid-size businesses in California and Colorado. SeeChange Health Solutions provides value-based benefit platforms and services to self-insured companies and carriers. Fast Company magazine acknowledged the power of SeeChange Health’s approach to wellness in naming it one of the World’s Top Most Innovative Companies in February 2013.
