Busque: Médico Farmacia Medicamento Rx Urgencias Hospital C. ambulatorios

News Releases

Michelle Johnson Corporate Communications 1340 Concord Terrace Sunrise, Florida 33323 Email: michelle.johnson@vistahealthplan.com (954) 858-3170

Sunrise, FL (November 11, 2008) – It’s not easy keeping 6,200 employees healthy, but it’s a task that Broward County is taking on through the “power of prevention.”

To showcase this forward thinking concept of disease prevention and wellness promotion in the workplace, Broward County will host a Grand Opening of the new employee "Wellness Resource Center," located inside the Broward Governmental Center, 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Third Floor, in Fort Lauderdale from 9-10 a.m. on Thursday, November 13, with comments by Broward County Mayor Lois Wexler at 9:15 a.m.

“I moved this idea forward to fruition because I believe the emphasis must be placed on preventing illness, rather than treating illness after the fact,” said Broward County Mayor Lois Wexler. “Exposing our employees to healthy lifestyle practices and arming them with wellness information available at a convenient centralized location is the concept behind this. I don’t know of any other government agency doing this on this large of a scale for the benefit of their employees.”

The Wellness Resource Center was made possible through funding from Broward County’s health benefits provider, VISTA, a Coventry Health Care Plan. The Center will be the site of interactive events throughout the year including guest speakers, healthy cooking seminars and fitness and exercise demonstrations. The Center also features education materials, streaming videos, and computers and printers that employees can use to conduct health related research. Numerous studies have shown that wellness initiatives reduce medical costs and make for healthier, more productive employees.

“VISTA is extremely proud to partner with the County to help them develop and implement a comprehensive employee wellness program,” said VISTA’s CEO Christopher Ciano. “VISTA recognizes that the workplace provides a unique opportunity to promote physical activity and healthy behaviors. We work with many of our employer groups to create customized solutions that will help their employees - our members - enjoy optimal health.”

The Center’s opening will also include the roll-out of a walking program developed by the American Heart Association that will feature an indoor and outdoor walking route, encouraging employees to be more active at the workplace. November 13th through the 21st will be a weeklong celebration of the center’s opening. In partnership with VISTA, area nonprofit organizations and local health and fitness companies there will be daily wellness activities focusing on nutrition, diabetes awareness, physical fitness, and stress relief and management.

“This Wellness Resource Center provides an opportunity to expose employees to new experiences, such as Yoga or Pilates,” said Broward County’s Benefits Director Karen Ruh. “Throughout the year we’ll host weekly wellness activities and presentations including many lunch and learn activities. The Government Center location will be our main resource center; we hope to duplicate this same concept on a smaller scale at other locations in the near future.”

The center is an integral component of the County’s employee wellness program designed to control health care costs by promoting disease prevention and encouraging employees to be informed and take an active role in their personal health management.

About Vista Healthplans, Inc.

VISTA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coventry Health Care, Inc. (www.cvty.com). Based in Bethesda, Maryland, Coventry operates health plans, insurance companies, network rental and workers’ compensation companies. VISTA offers an array of health benefit plans and products including health maintenance organization (HMO), preferred provider organization (PPO) and point-of-service (POS). VISTA customers include employer groups of all sizes - small businesses, large local companies, municipalities and state government. The company also provides health benefit plans to individuals and beneficiaries of the government programs, Medicare, Medicaid and Healthy Kids. With regional headquarters in Sunrise, nearly 300,000 Floridians depend on VISTA for their health benefit needs. More information is available on the web at www.vistahealthplan.com.