MINNEAPOLIS (Feb. 27, 2008) – UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, has received a 2007 Gold “Well Workplace” award from the Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) for its commitment to improving the health and well-being of its employees.

The Well Workplace awards recognize organizations that improve the health of their employees and thereby reduce their health care costs.  Organizations that receive Gold designation have developed comprehensive, strategic wellness programs that produce quantitative results as an integral part of their overall business.  UnitedHealthcare is one of only 66 companies nationwide recognized as a Gold award winner for 2007.

“UnitedHealthcare is passionate about bringing proven wellness solutions to our customers and consumers – including our own employees,” said Ken Burdick, CEO of UnitedHealthcare.  “We recognize the importance of integrating health and wellness into the work setting and have developed programs and services to do just that.  We are proud to be identified by WELCOA as one of ‘America’s Healthiest Companies.’”

Launched in 2005, UnitedHealthcare’s worksite wellness program, UnitedHealth Wellness, addresses prevalent health risks through educational, online and onsite programs.  Increased participation in employer-sponsored flu clinics and risk reduction in self-reported tobacco use were key drivers in UnitedHealthcare’s wellness success.  Today more than 31,000 UnitedHealthcare employees take part in UnitedHealth Wellness.

Detailed Outcome Measurement
Based on initial year-over-year measures of the health assessment and research from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ¹ and The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)², UnitedHealthcare used an economic conversion of risk change as well as unit cost projections to determine the dollars saved from its wellness program.³

Stop Smoking: According to the CDC, the average employee who engages in tobacco use incurs a medical cost spend of about $3,500 per individual per year.  Additionally, that same individual incurs a productivity cost loss of about $1,700 per individual per year.  UnitedHealthcare’s 2005 vs. 2006 self-reported health risk aggregate data demonstrated a decrease risk in tobacco use by one percent, assuming the same health assessment participants.  Using the CDC unit cost projections, UnitedHealthcare estimated medical cost dollar savings of nearly $1.1 million and a productivity dollar savings of $530,400.

Adult Flu Clinics (Worksite): According to The New England Journal of Medicine, an estimated savings of $46.85 can be saved per each adult flu-vaccinated employee.  Using the unit cost projections from The New England Journal of Medicine research, UnitedHealthcare estimated a health care cost savings of more than $700,000.

Dollars Saved: UnitedHealthcare estimated a total of $2.3 million was saved by the wellness programs implemented during the two-year program.*

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare (www.uhc.com) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services.  The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of more than 25 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 560,000 physicians and care professionals and 4,800 hospitals nationwide to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide.  UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.

UnitedHealth Wellness is a collection of programs and services offered to UnitedHealthcare enrollees to help them stay healthy. It is not an insurance product but is offered to existing enrollees of certain products underwritten or provided by United HealthCare Insurance Company or its affiliates to encourage their participation in wellness programs. Health care professional availability for certain services may be dependent on licensure, scope of practice restrictions or other requirements in the state. Some UnitedHealth Wellness programs and services may not be available in all states or for all group sizes.

* Dollars saved is defined by the sum of the dollars saved or avoided by the intervention.  The dollars saved were calculated using industry literature cited as well as aggregate employee data collected from the health assessment and monetary resources allocated for wellness programming during the 2005/2006 wellness calendar years.  The dollar savings are estimated economic projections based on a large employee participating population and are assumptive in nature. 

Resources:
¹ Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Economic  Costs—United States, 1995–1999. Morbidity and Mortality weekly Report 2002; 51(14): 300-03.
² Nichol KL, Lind A, Margolis KL, et al. The effectiveness of vaccination against influenza in healthy, working adults. N Engl J Med.  1995;333:889-893.
³ Chapman, L. (2001) ”Methods of Determining Economic Return”. The Art of Health Promotion. Volume 4, No. 6 January/February.