Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cultivating Wellness Champions to Cheer Your
Program to Success

Manasquan, N.J., USA, June 14, 2006 – Help Wanted: Company Wellness Program seeks existing employee ready to demonstrate a personal commitment to fitness, willing to help colleagues enhance their quality of life, and able to commit to helping the corporate wellness program succeed. Benefits include recognition from co-workers and management, improved personal health and wellness and satisfaction from inspiring positive lifestyle changes.

Increasingly, health plans and employers are recruiting wellness champions from employee ranks to play a pivotal role in wellness efforts. One midwestern university health plan even refers to its wellness champions as “well beings.” Wellness Champions: Developing a Network of Liaisons To Promote and Expand Your Wellness Program, a July 12, 2006 audio conference sponsored by the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN), will coach healthcare organizations in the drafting and retention of wellness champions and demonstrate the benefits of getting employees to go to bat for wellness efforts. For conference details and registration information, please visit the HIN bookstore.

Melanie Matthews, HIN executive vice president and chief operating officer, describes a wellness champion as “part health coach, part role model and part cheerleader,” one who can inspire tremendous lifestyle change among colleagues and boost the success rate of an employer’s wellness initiative. “Properly coached and recognized, wellness champions are a potential gold mine for employers,” she said. “If they are encouraged to feel an important part of the company movement, champions can help you spread the word and effect positive changes in your workforce without straining your wellness budget.”

Slated to present during Wellness Champions: Developing a Network of Liaisons To Promote and Expand Your Wellness Program are William Baun, manager, and Michele Nelson-Housley, coordinator, from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Wellness Program, as well as Robin Foust, principal with Zoe Consulting. This experienced team will cover the key components of building a wellness champion network and the benefits their organizations have gleaned from this initiative. Key talking points will include how-to’s on:

• Positioning wellness champions as a key component in a wellness foundation and shifting work culture;
• Developing wellness champion ownership that helps maintain program momentum;
• Employing core wellness champion engagement tactics that move volunteers to become wellness change agents;
• Designing a flexible champion structure that encourages participation at many different levels;
• Creating management buy-in and support through a “wellness in your face” communications strategy;
• Identifying effective champions;
• Rewarding a champion's work; and
• Determining ROI from wellness champion programs.

In addition to the live audio conference on July 12, 2006, the conference will also be available as an on-demand rebroadcast beginning July 14, 2006, and on CD-ROM with printed transcript in early August. To register and obtain details on audio conference formats, please visit the HIN bookstore.

About the Healthcare Intelligence Network – HIN is the premier advisory service for executives seeking high-quality strategic information on the business of healthcare. For more information, contact the Healthcare Intelligence Network, PO Box 1442, Wall Township, NJ 07719-1442, (888) 446-3530, fax (732) 292-3073, e-mail info@hin.com, or visit http://www.hin.com.

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Contact: Patricia Donovan