Virgin HealthMiles Comments on Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Mass in Motion Initiative

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - January 12, 2009) - Last week, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced the "Mass in Motion" initiative to address the serious problem of overweight and obesity in the Commonwealth. The state's top health leaders recognized that, although Massachusetts compares favorably to other states with respect to obesity, its rates are increasing more quickly than the nation as a whole. Mass in Motion is comprised of a number of policy and program elements, focusing on both exercise and nutritional labeling, designed to combat the obesity epidemic in Massachusetts and its consequences. While nutrition and labeling are important elements for weight control, creating an incentives based system to support behavior change is essential to addressing the obesity epidemic and the prevention of obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, hypertension and type-2 diabetes that put further strain on the already-burdened U.S. healthcare system.

Framingham, Mass.-based Virgin HealthMiles (www.virginhealthmiles.com) congratulates Governor Patrick and his health leadership team on taking a proactive approach to the potentially deadly problem of obesity. Virgin HealthMiles, a leader in providing organizations and governments with wellness incentive programs, has applied its proven, incentives-based approach to engaging and motivating the people to increase their physical activity. Unlike traditional wellness programs that only engage a small percentage of people in corporate settings, Virgin HealthMiles attracts an average of 40% of employees to participate, which helps organizations reduce medical costs and improve employee productivity and satisfaction. Virgin HealthMiles recently announced a year-long obesity awareness initiative with a multi-million dollar pledge towards fighting childhood obesity (www.virginhealthmiles.com/capitolstepschallenge).

Virgin HealthMiles' CEO, Chris Boyce, is available as a subject matter expert to speak to the benefits organizations are experiencing by motivating employees to become more active, and how incentive-based programs are proven to have long-lasting impact on habit changes. Boyce can share statistics about how increased physical activity has made a quantifiable impact on the wellness of individuals, as well as helped companies lower healthcare premiums.

Media interested in speaking with Mr. Boyce can contact Kathy Wilson at 781-652-0499 or kwilson@tieronepr.com.

Contact Information: Contact Kathy Wilson 781-652-0499