Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. Lead by Example, Go Head-to-Head in "Holiday Activity Challenge" Sponsored by Virgin HealthMiles

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Jan 7, 2013) - Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and New Jersey's Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. strive to lead by example in promoting healthy lifestyles. Not only do these leading insurers offer Virgin HealthMiles' employee health and productivity program as a product option through their business, they also offer it to their own employees. People take their health cues from peers, so the workplace is the right environment to foster sustainable healthy behavior changes. To further engage their employees in good health, the two companies participated in the recent "Holiday Activity Challenge," sponsored by Virgin HealthMiles. The winner of the three-week challenge was Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. 

The "Holiday Activity Challenge" had employees from these insurers boost their daily physical activity and focus on good health during the busy holiday season. With the support of the Virgin HealthMiles program, employees from both organizations tracked their daily activity using the HealthMiles program's tools during the challenge, which ran from November 27 through December 14. Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc. received a trophy, plus a $1,000 donation to the New Jersey Food Bank from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. 

"Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Horizon Healthcare Services don't just carry the HealthMiles program as an option to offer to their customers, they use it themselves and know first-hand how it effectively motivates and engages people to live healthier lives," said Jamie McLeod, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Sales of Virgin HealthMiles. "The three-week 'Holiday Activity Challenge' was a great way for these organizations to walk the talk and lead by example. We're pleased to not only serve the employees of these organizations, but to work with them in helping to get the employees of their customers engaged in good health." 

What the Challenge Participants Had to Say

• BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF MASSACHUSETTS: "We're in the business of health and want to model the behaviors we want our 2.8 million members to exhibit," said Jason Robart, Chief Human Resources Officer and Senior Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. "The data's pretty convincing that a healthy workforce is more productive, delivers better customer satisfaction and is more engaged. We've participated in a number of challenges through our Virgin HealthMiles program, which create a sense of excitement and enthusiasm across the company. Our organization has collectively taken well over a billion steps this year, the equivalent of walking the circumference of the globe several times over. We congratulate Horizon Healthcare Services on their challenge win and we're already looking forward to a re-match." 
  
  
• HORIZON HEALTHCARE SERVICES, INC.: "At Horizon, we're committed to encouraging healthy behaviors in our customers and our employees and we also love competition, so the Holiday Activity Challenge was a natural for us," Peggy Coons, Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Horizon. "We use Virgin HealthMiles as part of our Journey to Health program to encourage our employees to remain active in order to live a happier and more productive life. Our challenge win was a true team effort thanks to the extra effort our employees took to be more active during the holidays." 
  

To read more about the "Holiday Activity Challenge," visit the Virgin HealthMiles blog, The Uprising Blog.

About Virgin HealthMiles
Virgin HealthMiles, part of Sir Richard Branson's famed Virgin Group, provides programs and technologies that engage your workforce in good health. Leveraging Virgin's deep consumer roots, we create compelling, personalized digital health experiences that drive long-term healthy behavior change and employee engagement rates more than three times the industry average. Our range of Pay-for-Prevention™ solutions and program integration capabilities: drive higher awareness and engagement across multiple providers and programs; deliver better measurement and insight into the impact of your investments; and power your overall employee health strategy. Our easy-to-deploy and manage solutions feature a rich array of proven behavior change strategies, including: game mechanics, financial incentives, social networking, and many more. Over 130 industry leaders representing more than 700,000 employees have selected Virgin HealthMiles' award-winning programs for their employees. Learn more at www.virginhealthmiles.com.