PHILADELPHIA, March 13, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Independence Blue Cross (IBC) today welcomed guests from over 60 area companies to a kickoff breakfast at its Market Street headquarters for the sixth annual National Walk @ Lunch Day. Designed to build excitement for IBC's annual spring walk — one of the largest in the country — the breakfast encourages area employers to turn a working lunch into a walking lunch through participation in National Walk @ Lunch Day on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, at Rittenhouse Square.
At the breakfast, Kimberly Eberbach, IBC's vice president of wellness and community health, gave insight on how to motivate and inspire employees to maintain a regular fitness routine year-round. IBC also shared a toolkit to help employers schedule and plan their own National Walk @ Lunch Day events at their business locations.
"IBC is committed to enhancing the health and wellness of the people and communities we serve, which means helping our customers reduce their employees' risks for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses – and walking is part of that equation," said Eberbach. "Regular walking not only lowers blood pressure, boosts metabolism, and reduces stress, it also burns fat and calories. And on top of that, walking can be done by people at all fitness levels making it an excellent choice for any company-wide wellness initiative."
This year, the American Cancer Society (ACS), IBC's long-standing community partner, will also join the National Walk @ Lunch Day activities in April. After walking, participants can enroll in ACS's landmark national cancer prevention study, CPS-3. In October 2012, IBC hosted the first CPS-3 community enrollment activity at a company in a major metropolitan market and the largest CPS-3 enrollment event in the region. This latest effort in the Philadelphia region is part of a national campaign by the American Cancer Society to recruit for the study 300,000 men and women between the ages of 30 and 65 who have never been diagnosed with cancer.
On April 24, IBC will host a centralized walk in Philadelphia at Rittenhouse Square, while smaller walks will take place throughout the region at employer sites, schools, government offices, and senior centers.
In addition to National Walk @ Lunch Day, IBC supports numerous events and activities designed to promote physical exercise and healthy lifestyle decisions by its members and the community, including the Blue Cross Broad Street Run in May, Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes in October, and the Blue Cross RiverRink at Penn's Landing from November to March.
About Independence Blue Cross
Proudly celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2013, Independence Blue Cross is the leading health insurer in southeastern Pennsylvania. With our affiliates, we serve more than seven million people nationwide. We are enhancing the health and wellness of the people and communities we serve by delivering innovative and competitively priced health care products and services; pioneering new ways to reward doctors, hospitals, and other health care professionals for coordinated, quality care; and supporting programs and events that promote wellness. To learn more about how we're changing the game, visit www.ibx.com. Connect with us on Facebook at ibx.com/facebook and on Twitter at @ibx. Independence Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.