Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 25, 2008 – Imagine standing in the break room at the office and, instead of choosing a leftover jelly doughnut or cream cheese smothered bagel, you get a new exercise regimen for your weight-loss program, or a quick blood-pressure check and Body Mass Index (BMI) analysis.

Starting July 1, Pennsylvania employers that offer UnitedHealthcare commercial health benefit plans to their employees will have access to a new UnitedHealthcare program that brings highly trained and qualified wellness coaches into their offices and factories.

Certified and experienced wellness coaches are available to work in facilities from as little as eight hours a week for smaller businesses to full-time for larger companies.  Coaches confidentially interact with individual employees between three and 15 minutes per day.During these meetings, the wellness coaches will:

• Administer periodic health risk assessments and personally review results to identify trouble spots in employees’ lifestyles
• Help employees better understand their own health needs and the impact their lifestyle choices have on the wellness goals they set for themselves
• Provide employees with the expertise, guidance, motivation and support to reach their wellness goals
• Be available for consultation with dependents.

Workplace wellness coaches serve as a tangible reminder to employees that they can take control of their health and well-being, and can empower employees to be more productive and make healthier lifestyle choices,” said Stephanie Bernaciak-Massaro, vice president of UnitedHealthcare and head of the Pittsburgh area operation. Also, employers benefit from decreasing workplace absenteeism and lower overall health costs due to a healthier work force.”

UnitedHealthcare is contracting Wellness Coaches USA to provide the coaches, all of whom have at least undergraduate degrees in a healthcare field and three or more years of experience.  Wellness Coaches USA boasts 80-percent average participation rates for its in-person one-on-one wellness coaching, compared with 10 percent participation in Internet- or phone-based coaching services.

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare (www.unitedhealthcare.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.

Wellness Coaches USA
Wellness Coaches USA (www.wellnesscoachesusa.com) is the pioneer and leading national provider of workplace wellness coaching.  The wellness-coaching model, which is focused on improvement in employees’ high-risk lifestyle and work behaviors, consistently achieves the highest levels of employee participation in wellness, and outstanding improvement in overall employee population health risks. Wellness Coaches USA obtains these results because it delivers the most powerful behavior change methodology – wellness coaching – to the only place where it is possible to generate and sustain very high levels of employee participation and engagement in wellness – and that’s the workplace.