Season Four Biggest Loser Bill Germanakos Helps Aetna Kick-off Employee Wellness Program

HARTFORD, Conn., June 08, 2012 — As a health insurer, Aetna (NYSE: AET ) has been a leader in providing innovative health and wellness solutions that help members achieve better health and manage health care costs. As an employer, Aetna supports its employees through benefit plans and health programs that help them lead healthier lives. Recently, Aetna kicked off its annual Get Active Aetna Campaign, a 16-week program aimed at encouraging and inspiring its own employees and their families to live healthier lifestyles.

Get Active Aetna, a companywide fitness and healthy lifestyle choice competition, provides support and positive reinforcement for employees wanting to change their lifestyle habits and achieve personal fitness goals. Employees have access to user-friendly online tracking tools, quick and easy recipes and personal support from Aetna’s virtual wellness center, which houses a variety of health and lifestyle resources, including nutritionists and a virtual personal trainer.

“I’m proud to see this program enter its sixth year,” said Elease Wright, head of Human Resources at Aetna. “Get Active Aetna is a groundbreaking program and prime example of our commitment developing innovative solutions that improve health and help manage health care costs. I look forward to hearing the inspirational stories of how our employees worked together to achieve better health and improve their lives.”

Since its launch five years ago, participants in Get Active Aetna have walked a total of 18,070,000 miles. That is equal to 725 times around the earth's equator. As a compliment to the Get Active campaign, Aetna also offers its employees premium credits for engaging in healthier behaviors, such as stop smoking, and for becoming more informed about their health risk factors through metabolic syndrome testing. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of five risk factors that occur together, increasing the risk of heart disease and diabetes. The more of these risk factors one has, the greater the risk of being susceptible to these diseases. The program is also offered an employee’s spouse.

Kicking-off Get Active 2012 
Bill Germanakos, a winner of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, helped Aetna kick off this year’s program by offering sound advice on what it means to live a healthier life. Standing at five feet, eight inches tall, Germanakos originally weighed in at 334lbs. Over the course of the show’s fourth season, he had a stunning weight loss of 164 pounds – 49.1% of his starting body weight – for a final weight of 170 pounds.

“I was told by my doctor that I had taken 20 years off my life by being obese. But my real ‘aha’ moment came when I couldn’t ride a roller-coaster with my daughter because I was too fat. I realized right then and there, in the middle of the theme park, that I wanted to be around for the important things in life, like walking my daughter down the aisle,” Germanakos said

The kick-off event was marked with live streaming video from Aetna satellite offices in Blue Bell, PA and Amherst, NY. Each office discussed their “get healthy” goals such as walking more and eating more fruits and vegetables.

Interviews can be scheduled with Aetna employees and the company’s in-house fitness and nutrition experts for reporters who are interested in learning more about the program.

Watch a short video to see what motivates employees to participate in the program.

About Aetna 
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 36.4 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, medical management capabilities, health care management services for Medicaid plans and health information exchange technology services. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com.