ICMYI: Virgin Pulse Kicks Off First THRIVEx Virtual Summit; Highlights Latest Homebase for Healthtm Innovations Including VP+ Partner Service, VP Passport Return-to-Workplace Solution, and New Digital Therapeutics for Hypertension, Weight Management and Pre-Diabetes

Innovation focuses on agility, simplicity and user experience; underscores the company's Homebase for Healthtm vision to create one place where people can manage all their health, wellbeing, safety and return-to-workplace initiatives

PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Earlier this week, Virgin Pulse, the leading global provider of corporate health and wellbeing solutions, kicked off its first-ever virtual THRIVEx Summit featuring vision and innovation keynotes from Virgin Pulse CEO, David Osborne, and Chief Product Officer, Ron Hildebrandt; a timely discussion on "The Truth about Diet and Disease" with lifestyle medicine expert and president of True Health Initiative, Dr. David Katz; and culminated with a customer panel featuring Virgin Pulse clients sharing real-world examples of how they are leveraging their wellbeing platform and programs to support employees during these unprecedented times. Replays of the sessions will be available beginning June 8.

Following Osborne's opening keynote, which featured the inspiring story of Virgin Pulse member, Riley Zahm, Ron Hildebrandt highlighted the company's latest product innovations and future plans, all of which underscore the company's Homebase for Healthtm vision for unifying health, wellbeing and safety, benefits navigation, and care guidance into a seamless, integrated user experience.

Key highlights of this week's event included the recently launched VP Passport, a crisis response solution designed to assist organizations in their return to workplace planning, and the announcement of VP+, a new, innovative service comprising seven best-of-breed, industry-leading wellbeing partners, all available through a single, affordable and flexible contract.

VP+
Designed to streamline the partner procurement and vetting process, VP+ offers employers an easy, fast and cost-effective way to deliver a comprehensive wellbeing program to employees by eliminating the need to negotiate with and purchase from multiple vendors. VP+ is available exclusively to Virgin Pulse clients and each partner is pre-vetted through a high level of security, data sharing and privacy standards for ease and efficiency. A tiered pricing model and flexible deployment options allow clients to determine the timing of partner activation. Tier 1 includes access to all 7 partners for $19.99 PEPY; Tier 2 includes activation of any four partners for $14.99 PEPY. This pre-negotiated pricing reflects substantial cost savings ? nearly 60% ? when compared with purchasing each vendor's service separately.

"With more than 900 health and wellbeing point-solutions in the market today, partner ecosystems have become bloated and highly fragmented, making it impossible and costly for organizations to manage, and frustrating for employees to engage with," said Dave Osborne, CEO of Virgin Pulse. "Virgin Pulse assembled industry-leading digital health and wellbeing experts across a spectrum of categories to address this issue for our clients and members. Together, we have reimagined a partner experience that gives organizations the solutions and insights they need to drive utilization, productivity and outcomes in the most dynamic environments. With VP+, we have done the heavy lifting in terms of security reviews, annual certifications, integration, pricing negotiation and contracting so that our clients can deliver comprehensive wellbeing to their employees easily and in a more connected way."

In addition to speed and cost benefits, making these partner offerings available directly from the Virgin Pulse platform streamlines the user experience and helps maximize program awareness and utilization. This collaboration sets a new standard for helping clients maximize benefits, deliver a deeply connected member experience and minimize effort and spend. To deliver this initiative, Virgin Pulse partnered with industry-leading organizations across the seven most sought after wellbeing categories: physical fitness, financial wellness, musculoskeletal, family health, tobacco cessation, mindfulness and nutrition partners to provide cost-effective, tightly integrated and turnkey solution.

Available June 30, 2020, VP+ includes: Aaptiv for physical fitness; Enrich for financial wellbeing; Kaia Health for musculoskeletal; Ovia Health for family health; EX Program by Truth Initiative for tobacco cessation; Whil for mindfulness; and Zipongo for nutrition.

VP Passport
The centerpiece of Virgin Pulse's comprehensive return-to-workplace solution, VP Passport not only empowers clients to effectively respond to the challenges of COVID-19, it allows them to take the first step in future-proofing their organization for whatever comes next. VP Passport tm ensures mandatory and evolving government recommendations are met and that employees have safe and healthy workplaces, along with the tools to help them regain control over their physical, mental, and social wellbeing. VP Passport will be available June 30 as an integrated offering for Virgin Pulse clients and can also be deployed stand-alone.

In addition to VP+ and VP Passport, the event underscored several new products and services designed to help clients address immediate health and wellbeing priorities:

• Virgin Pulse Transform, a digital-first weight management, hypertension and diabetes prevention program, fully recognized by the CDC and differentiated by strong outcomes and multi-modal coaching offerings.
• Virgin Pulse Navigate a mobile-first digital navigation and health literacy platform that helps consumers better understand, find and maximize healthcare benefits.
• VP GO: a new turnkey wellbeing solution designed to boost company culture and improve employee health & wellbeing.

Osborne and Hildebrandt also highlighted the company's rapid response in delivering solutions to support clients, members and their families around the world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic:

• COVID-19 in-app wellbeing Guide
• COVID-19 Channel
• Guides and Coaches
• COVID-19 Homebase with Free Resource Guide
• Free access to partner resources
• Digital therapeutics for hypertension and diabetes
• VP GO Fast Forward ? COVID-specific configuration

For those who missed Tuesday's kick-off, replays will be available starting Monday, June 8. It's not too late to register for the remaining THRIVEx sessions. The event will continue each Tuesday through the month of June from 1-4 pm ET and feature different expert keynotes and topics each week. We hit full capacity this week and almost broke the internet, so we've added more Zoom seats for the remaining dates. To see upcoming speakers and to register, visit: https://thrivex.virginpulse.com/thrivex

About Virgin Pulse
Founded in 2004, Virgin Pulse is the world's largest, most comprehensive digital health and wellbeing SaaS company focused on driving real outcomes for employees, employers, health plans and their members. As the industry's only digital health and wellbeing company to fuse high tech with high touch, Virgin Pulse engages users every day in building and sustaining healthy habits and lifestyles and managing chronic disease. The company's health and wellbeing offerings include benefits navigation, claims analysis, digital and live coaching, condition management and CDC-recognized hypertension, weight management and hypertension, weight management and digital diabetes prevention programs (DPP) to support more than seven million Virgin Pulse members around the world across the entire wellbeing, health and health care lifecycle ? from prevention to intervention to reversal. To learn more, visit Virgin Pulse and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/96622037-0f02-4a89-8179-075310c2ef55