Wellvana is simplifying value-based care with a reimagined identity.

Leading marketing in fields ranging from fashion, food, to hospitality, I always struggled with manufacturing the meaning behind the brand. As I progressed in my career, I vowed only to work with brands that were solving a real problem and helping people lead better lives.

Value-based healthcare checks those boxes. And I’m convinced Wellvana will get us there.

The challenge in healthcare — only amplified within value-based care — is that it’s tangled in a spiderweb of jargon. Too frequently, this is an industry that only talks to itself.

How could we change lives for the better if physicians couldn’t understand what we did? If patients were confused about the next steps toward a healthier life? The stakes are considerably higher than driving apparel sales or boosting retail traffic.

So, we set out to build an identity that could clearly and elegantly connect with everyone from an 85-year-old patient to a seasoned doctor.

It’s Foundational

Branding is so much more than picking new colors and designing logos, though we have those, too. If a company was a house, branding would be the foundation — not the paint colors. It’s the mission. The vision. The basis for our existence.

A brand is a belief system — built on shared language, rooted in core values — that exists only through its relationship with the customer. Truly great brands can inspire, enthrall, and in Wellvana’s case, reshape an entire industry.

Over the last six months, we spiritedly debated a series of fundamental questions. Who is Wellvana? What makes us different? What do we value?

The answers fill an 80-page brand book. But no one should need to read it to get a feel for what we stand for:

Integrity. Clarity. Dependability. Advocacy.

Every good brand is built on a promise. For Wellvana, we will be guided by these values and usher healthcare into a more enlightened state where healthier patients will result in healthier profitability for providers and health systems.

When people spot the Wellvana green or the 4-point gleam rising from our new W logo, they will be reminded of all that we endeavor to do. It won’t be because they read this article, but because their personal experience with our people and services resonated with our core values.

Like it or not, we make decisions less on facts and more on how a brand makes us feel. That’s why building a trusted name requires this painstaking work.

Branding Is Connection

We’ve grounded Wellvana in the commitment to patient care shown by our founders and our physicians. We’re inspired by the life-changing work of our nurse care managers and by the diligence of our high touch team on the ground that works side-by-side with partner providers to transition into value-based care and improve the lives of their patients.

It makes sense why healthcare companies have played it safe with branding. Many have attempted to fit in rather than stand out. Healthcare has enjoyed safety that’s baked into the system—due to the lack of choice patients have in their own health decisions. That is changing. We are leading the way.

A single brand can build an entire industry. If value-based care is to become the prince that we were promised, it needs a brand that can carry the weight of becoming synonymous with this new way to provide care. And to achieve “Kleenex” or “Band-Aid” status demands providing clarity and emotion in an industry prone to being abstract and academic.

Providers have choices in finding a partner to lead them into value-based care. Over time, patients will be aware of choices, too. They will want a physician who commits to being their care quarterback, with skin in the game, who has every incentive to prevent illness and to provide the most helpful and efficient care when it’s needed.

The choice will become clear. And Wellvana will be the name to trust. We bet our brand on it.