Virgin HealthMiles Announces Fall '11 Release, Launches Connections -- a Social Platform That Connects Multiple Wellness Programs

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - Oct 26, 2011) - Poor health spreads like wildfire. And it not only impacts the lives of employees, it impacts business profitability. Virgin HealthMiles, a pioneer in leveraging individuals' social connections to create and sustain a workplace culture of health, thinks it's time to turn the tides and start spreading some good health. Today, the company announced its Fall '11 product release, designed to help employers drive greater impact of their employee health and wellness programs through higher employee engagement and better incentives management.

As part of its Fall '11 release, Virgin HealthMiles builds upon its industry leading capabilities and introduces Connections -- a breakthrough solution that provides employers with one social platform for all their health and wellness programs. With Connections, employers leverage peer-to-peer motivation and support to drive engagement and better health across their multitude of wellness offerings. Connections offers employers a secure forum where their employees can 'spread the health' -- a way for them to build support networks and recognize each other's accomplishments as they strive for healthier lifestyles.

The company also introduced new activity tracking capabilities that engage even more of an employer's workforce, helping organizations keep things simple with one easy program that fits all fitness levels. Virgin HealthMiles also introduced enhanced Integrated Incentives, which help organizations more easily integrate third-party programs and data, and simplify promotion and management of multiple programs and incentives.

"At Virgin HealthMiles, getting healthy has always been social. With Fall '11, we're building upon our proven ability to engage employees in sustained, healthy behaviors and we're helping employers for the first time create a social community that will encompass all the health promotion programs they have in place," said Tom Abshire, senior vice president of marketing and member engagement for Virgin HealthMiles. "Fall '11 not only helps employers drive greater awareness and participation in their health and wellness programs, it helps them create a cohesive, reinforcing employee experience across various programs and drives greater impact from all their offerings."

Key Benefits of the Fall '11 Release: Social Connections, Improved Activity Tracking, Easier Third-Party Program and Data Integration

• Spread the Health with Connections: It's a private, members-only social health community where employees build support networks; post updates to share goals and accomplishments; and create groups around common interests and healthy activities. Connections will generate a healthy buzz around the office. Plus, employers can use Connections to add social networking to and drive higher awareness and participation in all of their health and wellness programs. For example, employers can use Connections to create a support group for employees participating in their smoking cessation program, or to let their health coaches provide one-to-many coaching outside of the classroom or coaching call, and more.
  
  
• More ways to track activity means more employees participate: Simple walking programs may fit the needs of some employees, but what about those who are highly active? Fall '11 helps employers keep it simple with one program that meets the needs of all fitness levels. With the new Fall '11 features, employees earn "Active Minutes" -- a way for them to get credit for more vigorous workouts. Whether employees prefer to walk for 30 minutes per day, run for 15 or do something else, with "Active Minutes" they can all use the same, simple tools and earn rewards for the activities they like to do.
  
  
• A Better Way to Promote Your Programs and Easier, Less Costly Data Integration: Building upon Virgin HealthMiles' market-leading Integrated Incentives solution, it's now even easier for employers to integrate data from third-party partners, add or replace programs based on changing business needs, and increase employee awareness of all their available programs and incentives opportunities.
  
  

Connections, new activity tracking, and enhanced Integrated Incentives are now available to current and prospective HealthMiles clients. For more information, visit: http://us.virginhealthmiles.com/resources/Pages/Fall11_WhatsNew.aspx.

About Virgin HealthMiles
Virgin HealthMiles provides technology-based employee health programs that pay people to get active. The company's Pay-for-Prevention™ approach, based on physical activity and healthy lifestyle change, attracts an average of 40 percent of employees who participate, which helps organizations reduce medical costs and improve employee productivity and satisfaction. Over 120 industry leaders representing more than 700,000 employees across the U.S have selected Virgin HealthMiles' award-winning program for their employees. The company is a member of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group. For more information, visit www.virginhealthmiles.com.