Healthways (NASDAQ: HWAY) and the UCLA Health System have entered into an agreement to make the UCLA Health System an approved provider of the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease TM in southern California. The program helps individuals improve what they eat, how they respond to stress, how much activity they engage in, and how much support they receive as part of a program designed to prevent, treat and reverse heart disease by effecting lifestyle changes.

"UCLA is pleased to be able to offer the Ornish program, and we are working towards developing our first site for the program," said Dr. David T. Feinberg, president, UCLA Health System, and chief executive officer, UCLA Hospital System.

Healthways will design staff and participant curricula, build the program's online presence, and train all staff, while the UCLA Health System will provide the staff, facilities and billing. Services will be delivered at the Westwood campus that will be designed specifically to optimize the patient experience.

In July of last year, Healthways announced that it had entered into an exclusive partnership with Dr. Ornish to operate and license his lifestyle management programs. The Ornish programs have been proven effective in treating and reversing the impact of coronary artery disease, Type 2 diabetes and early-stage prostate cancer, chronic diseases that drive disproportionate medical costs and health-related lost productivity in businesses and communities throughout the country. The goals of the program are consistent with new trends in so-called value based reimbursement systems that provide incentives for improving patients' underlying health in a potentially more cost-effective manner.

"Healthways is proud to partner with both Dr. Ornish and leading organizations such as UCLA Health Systems to rapidly expand accessibility to this truly life-changing program," said Ben R. Leedle, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Healthways.

About Dean Ornish, M.D.

Dean Ornish, M.D., is the founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Ornish received his M.D. from the Baylor College of Medicine, was a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School, and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He earned a B.A. in Humanities summa cum laude from the University of Texas in Austin, where he gave the baccalaureate address.

Dr. Ornish was appointed by President Obama to the White House Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health in 2010 and by President Clinton to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy in 2000. He chaired the Google Health Advisory Council 2007-9.

The Ornish diet was rated #1 for heart health by U.S. News & World Report in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

For over 36 years, Dr. Ornish has directed clinical research demonstrating, for the first time, that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse even severe coronary heart disease, without drugs or surgery. He directed the first randomized controlled trial demonstrating that comprehensive lifestyle changes may stop or reverse the progression of early-stage prostate cancer. His current research showed that comprehensive lifestyle changes affect gene expression, "turning on" disease-preventing genes and "turning off" genes that promote cancer and heart disease, as well as the first study showing that these lifestyle changes reverse aging by lengthening telomeres, the ends of our chromosomes which control aging. He is the author of six books, all national bestsellers, including: Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease; Eat More, Weigh Less; Love & Survival; and his most recent book, The Spectrum.

He has received numerous awards, including the University of California, Berkeley, "National Public Health Hero" award; the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the University of Texas, Austin (1994); the Jan J. Kellermann Memorial Award for distinguished contribution in the field of cardiovascular disease prevention from the International Academy of Cardiology; a Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association; the Beckmann Medal from the German Society for Prevention and Rehabilitation of Cardiovascular Diseases; and the Bravewell Collaborative Pioneer of Integrative Medicine award. He gave a keynote speech reviewing the science of integrative medicine at the Institute of Medicine's first Summit on Integrative Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Ornish was honored as "one of the 125 most extraordinary University of Texas alumni in the past 125 years"; chosen by LIFE magazine as "one of the fifty most influential members of his generation"; recognized as "one of the most interesting people of 1996" by People magazine; and described in Forbes magazine as "one of the seven most powerful teachers in the world."

About Healthways

Healthways is the largest independent global provider of well-being improvement solutions. Dedicated to creating a healthier world one person at a time, the Company uses the science of behavior change to produce and measure positive change in well-being for our customers, which include employers, integrated health systems, hospitals, physicians, health plans, communities and government entities. We provide highly specific and personalized support for each individual and their team of experts to optimize each participant's health and productivity and to reduce health-related costs. Results are achieved by addressing longitudinal health risks and care needs of everyone in a given population. The Company has scaled its proprietary technology infrastructure and delivery capabilities developed over 30 years and now serve approximately 45 million people on four continents. Learn more at www.healthways.com.

Healthways
Chip Wochomurka, 615-614-4493
Chip.Wochomurka@Healthways.com