| | | | Dear ,
Happy April from Blue Zones™ Health. April is Stress Awareness Month, and according to the American Institute of Stress, up to 90% of primary care visits have a stress-related component.
Stress management is one of the nine core principles of Blue Zones longevity research, and for good reason. Okinawans take a few moments each day for quiet reflection. Ikarians nap. Sardinians do happy hour. The practice looks different across cultures, but the effect is the same: a daily downshift ritual that reliably sheds stress. At Blue Zones Health, that principle is built into our care model, not treated as an afterthought.
This issue has patient resources, class recommendations, and research highlights to support your stress-related patient conversations, along with a message from our CMO, a look at our Moai™ program, a referral quick reference, and a preview of an upcoming provider resource page.
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To support your patient conversations this month, we've developed a handout and worksheet on stress reduction. The front covers a quick-start breathing exercise and a simple three-week plan for building daily downshift habits. The back is a fillable worksheet with daily challenges, common barrier strategies, and a goal-setting section. Print it, display it, or share it digitally.
| | | | | | | | It's Time for Spring Cleaning |
Most people think of stress management as something that happens in your head, but environment plays a bigger role than most patients realize. Clutter, a poorly set up bedroom, and easy access to unhealthy food all work against the habits your patients are trying to build. We've put together three room-by-room checklists your patients can use to set up their home for better health, with small, practical changes to the bedroom, kitchen, and living space that support better sleep, more movement, and healthier eating.
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Message from our CMO Magda Lenartowicz | | | |
Behavioral Health Services ProviderAvail Health Medical Group is a long-time valued partner to Blue Zones Health. Avail Health is a clinician‑founded and clinician‑led medical group with virtual behavioral health services including psychiatry, neuro‑psychiatry (including ADHD and neuro‑cognitive evaluations), and psychotherapy. Avail Health provides caring services for patients across California, to referred Blue Zones Health members, and has a strong focus on serving Medicare or geriatric age members.
Why providers work with Avail Health - Appointments are virtual and available within one week of referral
- 100% virtual telemedicine services, reducing access barriers for patients
- Psychiatric and other specialty provider visit notes are faxed to the PCP referring provider within 48 hours
- Seamless collaboration with referring providers via telephonic and asynchronous consults
- High patient satisfaction (NPS score: +84)
How to Refer Your Patients - PCPs can refer patients via the ACTY Portal
- Search by name within the Referring TO: Avail Health Medical Group, PC
- Or search specialty using one of the below specialties and select Avail Health from listed results:
- MH - Mental Health
- P - Psychiatry
- NS - Neuropsychiatry
- PST - Psychotherapy
- PSY - Psychology
- LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker
- Locations- Avail Health appears as a telemedicine vendor, with virtual locations mapped by city and ZIP code across all five counties
Avail Health is proud to support our provider network and deliver timely, high‑quality behavioral health care to your patients. | | | | | | Well-Being Services at Blue Zones Health is a clinically supervised extension of primary care, offering health coaching, nutrition counseling, social work support, care coordination, and lifestyle-based chronic disease management. Here's how to refer: - Use Elixir or the ACTY portal to submit a referral, or send us a fax at (323) 574-0387
- We typically respond within 48 hours
| | We recently launched a post-session satisfaction survey for members who have completed health coaching sessions through Well-Being Services. Early results are encouraging: - 92% of respondents said they found their sessions useful in working toward their health goals
- 100% said they would recommend Blue Zones Health to others
- One member said it best: "I adore my coach. She has been so encouraging."
Questions? Call (310) 295-0391 or contact your Well-Being Services liaison. | | | | Well-Being Services: Match your patients to the right classes | | | | Our virtual class calendar has something for almost every patient. Classes are led by our Well-Being Advisors, doctors, dietitians, and health coaches, are free for members, and available online. Here are some starting points (Click on the specific class to access the class enrollment form):
Stress, anxiety, or low mood: Gentle Yoga, Mindfulness and Breathwork for Relaxation, Body and Mind Support Group, Right Outlook, Group Coaching
Hypertension, diabetes, or metabolic risk: Healthy Cooking Class, Plant Slant Group Session, individual nutrition counseling, and new nutrition classes launching soon
Sedentary or at fall risk: Balance for Life (returning soon), Thrive Through Occupations, Gentle Yoga
Socially isolated: Connect Group, Group Coaching, Walking Moais, Community Prescriptions
The calendar is searchable by category, location, and class type. Share it with patients or enroll with them at their next visit. For enrollment assistance, call Well-Being Services at (310) 295-0981. | | | | New Chronic Disease Management Support Programs | | The Well-Being Services team is launching a targeted series of programs designed to support your patients in managing chronic disease. The first program in this series is a 6-week intervention for patients with congestive heart failure. Additional details, including enrollment criteria and program structure, will be shared with you in the coming weeks. To request participation for your patients in the meantime, call our enrollment coordinator at (323) 568-1592. | | | | Moai Group Launch Party Recap | | On April 18th, Blue Zones Health joined Blue Zones Project Riverside for the Moai Launch Party, celebrating the arrival of 26 new Moai groups now available exclusively to Riverside residents. At our booth, we ran an interactive game called Chispitas (Spanish for "little sparks") designed to help attendees identify one small, lifestyle-focused change they could make that day. The idea behind it mirrors what the research consistently shows: lasting health improvements often start with the smallest shifts. For providers, Moais are a meaningful referral option for patients who need support beyond the clinic walls. These community-based groups reinforce personalized health goals and connect patients to peers who share them. Browse available programs and refer patients through our Community Events Calendar at bluezoneshealth.com/activities. | | | | | | Coding and Quality Corner | | Modifier 25: A Quick Refesher Modifier 25 is used when a provider performs a significant, separately identifiable evaluation and management (E/M) service on the same day as a procedure or other service. In practice, this comes up when a patient presents for one thing, such as a scheduled procedure or preventive visit, and a separate, distinct clinical issue is identified and addressed during the same encounter.
Modifier 25 should only be appended to E/M codes in the range of 92002-92014 and 99201-99499, as well as HCPCS codes G0101 and G0175. To use it correctly, the E/M service must be medically necessary, documented separately, and meet the CPT definition of a "significant, separately identifiable" service. It should not be used routinely or as a default when two services happen to occur on the same day.
If you have questions about whether a visit qualifies, reach out to your billing team before appending the modifier.
Consider sharing this with your front office and billing staff as a quick reference. | | | | | | - Small combined improvements add up for cardiovascular health
A March 2026 study highlighted by the European Society of Cardiology found that small combined improvements in sleep, diet, and physical activity were associated with a lower risk of major cardiovascular events, including heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. The takeaway for clinicians is practical: patients may not need to overhaul every habit at once to see benefit, because incremental progress across multiple behaviors appears to matter. - Deprescribing is feasible in a lifestyle medicine-informed primary care model
A March 31, 2026 study from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine found that deprescribing glucose-lowering medications is feasible and safe when type 2 diabetes care is delivered in a lifestyle medicine-informed primary care model. In the subgroup with follow-up data, BMI fell by 2.2 kg/m² and blood glucose dropped by 50.5 mg/dL, and no adverse events were attributed to the deprescribing process. - Federal reimbursement structures may be catching up to prevention
A new April 2026 CMS initiative called MAHA ELEVATE signals that federal policy is beginning to test lifestyle-based, whole-person interventions in Medicare. CMS describes the model as evaluating evidence-based approaches that combine nutritional, psychological, and physical supports, which may matter to clinicians who want to see reimbursement structures align with prevention. - Plant-forward eating may protect against dementia
An April 2026 study in Neurology found that higher-quality plant-based diets were associated with lower dementia risk, and that people whose diets became healthier over time had lower risk than those whose diets worsened.
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Before you go… - Do you know a Blue Zones Health provider who’s doing great work? Let us know! Click here to nominate them as a featured provider!
- Have an announcement to share with the Blue Zones Health provider community? Tell us about it!
- Questions we haven't answered? Call 833-LIV-BLUE
With cheer and good health, The Blue Zones Health team
| | | | ©2026 All rights reserved. BLUE ZONES, Live Better, Longer, and all other related marks are trademarks of Blue Zones, LLC, used under license.
| | Our mailing address is: 4368 Central Ave, Riverside, CA 92506 View in Browser
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