Improving Health and

Wellness of Individuals:
Spotlight on Verizon
Communications
Overview
The culture of health that continues to unfold
across Verizons large and widespread workforce
is the result of a strategic initiative designed to
improve health and control costs for the
companys more than 700,000 employees,
retirees, and dependents. The companys
comprehensive approach to health and wellness
effectively combines benefits, incentives,
support, and health services to help employees
more easily access the right care at the right
time in the right location. Results show that the
strategy is working.
In addition to providing comprehensive health
benefits (on which the company spent nearly
$3.2 billion in 2013), Verizons strategy involves
engaging and empowering employees, retirees,
and their families to proactively manage and
improve their health. The strategy emphasizes
preventive care and early detection, condition
management, maternity care management,
and promoting healthy lifestyles with a focus on
healthy eating, exercise, tobacco cessation,
emotional health, and work/life balance. Fortyfive onsite Verizon Health and Wellness Centers,
staffed by trained professionals who are Verizon
employees, promote the importance of healthy
lifestyle habits through physical activity, nutrition
counseling seminars, and more.

Verizons Strategies for Improving the

Health and Wellness of Individuals
An overview of some of Verizons strategies for
improving health and wellness is provided below.

Ready Access to Online Healthy Living Information

and Interactive Support Tools
In 2012, Verizon significantly expanded online
access to healthy living information with a new
one-stop health and wellness portal called
WellConnect, which provides access to all Verizon
wellness programs, as well as personalized health
information, online tools, mobile apps, a video
library, and healthy living tips to help individuals eat
well, stay active, and maintain a balanced
lifestyle.
Additionally, Verizon regularly presents webinars for
employees on a broad variety of topics such as
asthma, diabetes, mens health, Know Your
Numbers, and prenatal care.
Easy Access to Preventive Care
Verizon offers no-cost biometric health screenings,
such as cholesterol and blood sugar tests, along
with height, weight, blood pressure, and body
mass index (BMI) screenings. During 2013, these
services were offered at more than 90 Verizon
locations, 2,000 laboratory patient service centers,
and through personal physicians. Breast health
informational sessions and mammography
screenings were also offered at 21 work locations
and more than 600 women took advantage of
the on-site screenings in 2013. More than 20,000
employees received flu shots on-site, a positive
increase of 8 percent.
Management of Chronic Conditions, Such as
Diabetes
Verizon has teamed with Anthem Blue Cross Blue
Shield and Express Scripts to conduct outreach
campaigns to help those with diabetes manage
their conditions by encouraging preventive care
tests (such as Hemoglobin A1c tests, dilated eye
exams, as well as microalbumin, cholesterol, and
blood pressure screenings) and medication
adherence. Verizon uses national benchmarks to
measure progress and designs new interventions
to help employees manage key diabetes
management goals.

Benefit and Impact

Verizons strategies are paying off. Verizon has
studied the results of a group of 1,700 employees
who were screened in 2012 and 28 percent of
those who had out-of-range blood pressure the
previous year had moved to in-range. Colon
cancer screenings are improving as 47 percent
of employees and dependents in the ageappropriate population were screened in 2013,
approaching national benchmarks. Breast
cancer screenings continue to improve and
meet national benchmarks at 67 percent. In
2013, the Healthy Pregnancy Program deliveries
accounted for 30 percent of all Verizon babies
delivered, a 3 percent increase in participation
over 2012. The Healthy Pregnancy Program helps
participants safely deliver healthy children by
providing maternity risk assessments, health
education, and proactive benefits
management. The program also helps to ensure
the mothers well-being with post-partum
depression screenings.

Lessons Learned
Verizons workforce is geographically dispersed
across 49 states, and scaling programs to
cover hundreds of locations can be difficult.
Also, Verizon employs a number of shift
workers and a large number of employees
who work independently. Both can create
challenges with widespread adoption.
To overcome these challenges, Verizon launched
a new online portal in November 2012 to provide
an easily accessible, one-stop gateway for
health and wellness resources. To drive traffic to
the site, the company implemented a
push/pull communications strategy, including a
Wellness Now e-magazine. With the launch of
the e-magazine, web page views increased
nearly five-fold in only one months time.

Verizon also launched a consumerism

campaign designed to highlight cost savings
opportunities in areas such as low-intensity
emergency room and radiology use, influence
health care decision-making through decision
support tools, and promote accountability using
straight talk about the cost of health care
services. The use of incentives for healthy
behaviors, like completing a health assessment to
raise awareness of risk and actions to address
those risks as well as not smoking, is key to
achieving and sustaining those behaviors.
In addition, Verizon utilizes engagement
champions across work locations to raise
awareness of onsite screenings, vaccinations,
and physical activity initiatives.

Key Take-aways for Other Employers

Verizons health and wellness strategy is focused on
prevention and healthy lifestyles, data-driven
decision- making, and measuring success. Deidentified claims data provides a good indication
of how to prioritize programs and initiatives;
communications and participation data along with
employee feedback help determine interest,
whats working, and whats not working; and deidentified outcomes data helps leaders
understand lasting behavior change. Raising
awareness through consumer tools and
messaging helps employees understand the
mutual advantage of using health care benefits
and resources wisely. Verizon continuously
innovates so that as market resources like online
and mobile health tools change and grow, the
company keeps its programs fresh and engaging.