Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona empowers Arizonans to improve health
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ), the state’s largest locally based healthcare insurer, and Sharecare, the digital health company that helps people manage all their health in one place, today announced a strategic partnership to empower every Arizonan, regardless of insurance coverage, to improve their holistic health and well-being. Additionally, this deal provides exclusivity to BCBSAZ as the only Arizona-based health plan to offer the Sharecare platform to members or commercial customer groups.
“Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona has a strong commitment to improve the value of healthcare for not only our members, but every single Arizonan. Sharecare embraces our same dedication to helping people build longer, better lives by enabling health transformation at the individual, organizational, and community levels,” said Pam Kehaly, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. “It’s our privilege to be the only Arizona-based plan offering Sharecare’s personalized health platform and to embark on this journey to make Arizona one of the healthiest states in the country.”
Founded by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz, Sharecare helps people better understand their health and get timely and actionable steps to improve it. Starting with the proprietary, scientifically validated RealAge test – which calculates the actual age of the user’s body based on lifestyle factors and key indicators for health risks – Sharecare enables people to go from assessment to action, and connect to the personalized information, evidence-based programs, benefits, community resources and health services they need to live their best lives. Using RealAge as each individual’s baseline, Sharecare then motivates users to engage in their health every day by helping them track their “green days” – the metric Sharecare uses to measure users’ daily progress toward their personalized health goals – which, when accumulated over time, can result in a lower RealAge.
“BCBSAZ has shown that it is committed to engaging the community and collaborating with all stakeholders to improve health across the state, and we are proud to partner with them to help every Arizonan – no matter where they are in their health journey,” said Jeff Arnold, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Sharecare. “Together, we will inspire a movement to advance community-driven health in Arizona, helping everyone take better care of themselves, get access to the right services and practitioners at the right time, and increase their productivity and quality of life.”
As part of the new partnership kicking off in 2020, any Arizonan can download Sharecare to learn their RealAge, earn green days and follow a personalized, evidence-based journey to better health. Additionally, Arizonans who are BCBSAZ members will have enhanced services through Sharecare, including access to claims data; custom challenges and incentive fulfillment; and additional tools and information, including best-in-class lifestyle coaching.
Evolution Construction Services launches in Phoenix
Evolution Construction Services, a commercial painting and renovation company that serves property management clients has launched in Phoenix. The company, formerly CertaPro Painters, offers an array of construction services and has completed more than 2,500 projects with more than $50 million of projects in managed property painting, renovations and repairs over the course of the last 22 years in business.
The company is run by Principal/CEO Anthony Vay, who was the owner of CertaPro Painters. Vay brings more than 21 years of experience working with notable clients such as First Service Residential, Associated Asset Management, Cushman & Wakefield, Greystar Residential, Alliance Residential, CBRE and MEB Management. Vay has welcomed a new minority partner, Cliff Burns, who previously worked for Nautilus General Contractors as the general manager of its Arizona division for more than five years. Before that, he owned a general contracting business for more than 20 years.
“Evolution Construction Services has grown from our desire to take the previous limitations that the franchise, CertaPro Painters, had and is now available to offer a variety of solutions for our customers’ projects,” said Vay. “This allows us to tailor our approach depending on each client and provide them with the “one stop shop” experience that we previously could not.”
While still focusing on painting first, Evolution Construction Services offers everything for commercial renovation including wood/stucco/drywall repairs, waterproofing, decking and walkway repairs, wrought iron fabrication, deferred maintenance, tenant improvements, design, budgeting, exterior aesthetic renovations and more. The business storefront is located at 2237 N. 36th St. in Phoenix and at 3045 N. First Ave. Suite H in Tucson, will be offering its services Valley wide and in the metro Tucson area.
Evolution Construction Services works with existing managed property structures to provide them with the best and most complete, yet financially sound, solutions to their building maintenance problems. For more information about Evolution Construction Services, visit www.evolutionarizona.com.
PetSmart generates $1.6M to support animal-assisted therapy
Thousands of generous PetSmart shoppers made the holidays a little brighter for both pets and people with a toy drive that donated more than two million toys to those in need. The plush toys, purchased by shoppers and donated through toy drives in PetSmart’s 1,660 stores, were donated to children’s hospitals, senior centers, animal shelters and other non-profit organizations across North America. Each PetSmart store selected an organization in its community as a toy drive beneficiary. In addition to the massive donation, more than $1.6 million was raised through sales of PetSmart’s holiday philanthropic collection to fund animal-assisted therapy programs in children’s hospitals.
Each year since 2004, from mid-October through late December, PetSmart stores gather donated toys for organizations to distribute before Christmas Eve. This year, in Texas, the Lubbock PetSmart store donated 6,071 toys to the local Toys for Tots campaign as well as Meals on Wheels, bringing smiles to homebound seniors who received a plush toy with delivered meals. In Canada, the Northeast Edmonton PetSmart store donated over 3,000 toys to children’s welfare organizations, including patients in the cardiac unit at Stollery Children’s Hospital. The Caguas PetSmart store in Puerto Rico donated 2,601 toys to local churches, fire and police departments where they will continue to be used as a source of comfort for children and families who experience traumatic situations while recovery efforts continue.
Chance the Dog, Lucky the Cat, Hope the Bunny and Wish the Unicorn are an exclusive line of plush toys that squeak when squeezed, making them perfect gifts for people and pets alike. In addition to the joy they bring to children, seniors and pets during each holiday season, these stuffed toys continue to give back all year long with ten percent of the sale of each toy donated to PetSmart Charities® and PetSmart Charities® of Canada. Those funds will be used to bring the healing power of pets through animal-assisted therapy programs to patients receiving care at children’s hospitals.
For more information about PetSmart and the Holiday Philanthropic Collection visit www.petsmart.com. For more information about PetSmart Charities visit www.petsmartcharities.org.
About Ranking Arizona
Ranking Arizona is an annual publication that ranks businesses in more than 300 categories based on public voting in the state’s biggest and most comprehensive business opinion poll. Ranking Arizona is based purely on opinion and ranks companies based on how voters answer this simple question: with whom would you recommend doing business? The magazine is published by AZ Big Media. To learn more about Ranking Arizona, contact Sheri King, director of sales.
