Online Portal is a New Part of Overall Wellness Program that Includes the Popular SilverSneakers Fitness Program

Rochester, NY (PRWEB) October 10, 2012

The signature piece of the new program is Well-Being ConnectTM, an online portal that allows members to create a tailored approach to accessing and improving their overall health. Along with the new online portal, the program includes popular existing MVP programs, such as wellness classes, the SilverSneakers Fitness Program and outreach designed to help improve the lives of members living with chronic diseases.

The Well-Being Program is currently available to the approximately 85,000 Medicare Advantage members in MVPs service footprint.

This is an informative and fun new way for our Medicare Advantage members to be proactive about maintaining and improving their health, said Patrick Glavey, Executive Vice President of Government Programs for MVP. Our wellness and fitness programs are already so well utilized that we think our members will really embrace these new options for engaging with their health.

The utilization of online technology as a component of an overall well-being improvement strategy represents a significant breakthrough, and we applaud MVP for incorporating this strategy to drive engagement of their Medicare Advantage members, said Ben R. Leedle, Jr., President and CEO of Healthways. Both MVP and Healthways are convinced the real value for members is using Well-Being Connect as the gateway to delivering comprehensive and effectively integrated services.

Well-Being Connect can be accessed by Medicare Advantage members once they log into their MVP account at http://www.mvphealthcare.com. To begin using the new portal, members must first complete the Well-Being Assessment, a confidential questionnaire that evaluates their lifestyle and overall health. Once the assessment is completed, they are provided a full health report and customized action plan, which they are encouraged to share with their doctors.

Completing the assessment provides access to a number of online resources including weight, fitness and medication use trackers; videos and articles; recipes and meal ideas; and tools to help them quit using tobacco.

Additionally, members whose answers on the Well-Being Assessment show that they might benefit from health coaching (for tobacco use, nutrition, physical activity, etc.) will be contacted by Healthways to participate in a coaching program by phone.

For more information about Healthways, visit http://www.healthways.com or http://www.silversneakers.com.

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MVP Health Care Introduces Well-Being Connect for Medicare Advantage Members

GAINESVILLE - The Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce (GHCC) offered free health screenings to the public and honored area companies that focus on fitness during Wednesday's 6th Annual Health Smart Expo at the Georgia Mountains Center.

Participants had a chance to hear from Fox 5 Meteorologist Jeff Hill, who has suffered complications from a heart disorder, at an early morning breakfast. Then, they were able to take advantage of free health screenings and sharing of health information later in the day; that information was provided by more than 60 health-related businesses from the Gainesville-Hall County area.

As part of the VISION 2030 HealthSmart Community Challenge, the Chamber announced the 2012 Most Fit Company Awards at the HealthSmart Breakfast. Judging criteria for the contest included wellness, nutrition and fitness opportunities provided for employees.

The award is presented in three categories: Large companies (251+ employees), medium (51-250) and small (50 or less):

SMALL CATEGORY WINNER

Aqua-Terra Recycling & Treatment Tammy Neal, CEO; Richard (Dickey) Watson, General Manager

Aqua-Terra Recycling and Treatment was established in 1997 to provide treatment and disposal services for petroleum contaminated water and soil. Aqua-Terra offers customers a treatment facility that has a perfect-permit compliance record with no Notice of Violations. Aqua-Terra expanded into a full service environmental consulting and engineering firm and provides demolition, waste management, industrial cleaning, UST/AST removals, vacuum truck services, drum removal and emergency response services with a team of professional engineers, chemists, geologists, industrial hygienists, environmental consultants and safety professionals, all of which are 40-hour OSHA trained. Aqua-Terra is committed to working with clients to achieve cost effective results and provide quality environmental and waste management services. The company in Flowery Branch has only five full time employees: Tammy Neal, CEO, attends the gym four days per week and Dickey Watson, General Manager, is a tri-athlete and marathoner. They offer yearly physicals, and depending on the project, employees and management staff are screened and given a physical after certain projects.

MEDIUM CATEGORY WINNER

Ace Hardware Buddy Honea, Regional Facility Manager; Lee Setzer, Operations Manager; Jane Cowart, HR Supervisor; Lea Tavani, HR Manager

LARGE CATEGORY WINNER

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GHCC Health Smart Expo offers health info, honors health companies

BETHESDA, Md. & NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Coventry Health Care, Inc. (CVH) and Healthways (HWAY) today announced an agreement to offer the award-winning SilverSneakers Fitness Program to Coventrys eligible Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in 13 states. This three-year agreement, effective January 1, 2013, makes SilverSneakers available to beneficiaries in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

For those plans with Silver Sneakers benefits, Coventrys Medicare Advantage beneficiaries will have full access, at no cost to them, to SilverSneakers programs and locations across the country. SilverSneakers is the nations leading exercise program designed to keep older adults active and healthy.

Coventry has offered fitness programs to its Medicare Advantage beneficiaries since 2009 to help them achieve a healthier lifestyle. Coventry and Healthways began their partnership in 2012 by offering SilverSneakers to eligible Coventry beneficiaries in Florida. In the first seven months of the programs availability, Coventry beneficiaries made more than 37,000 visits to SilverSneakers locations.

Coventry believes strongly in helping people get well and stay well for a better quality of life, said Nancy Cocozza, Senior Vice President, Medicare, at Coventry Health Care. The SilverSneakers model focuses heavily on reaching out to older adults to encourage them to become more active, healthy and fit. We have seen a high level of engagement and excitement from beneficiaries in Florida through this program, and we are pleased to offer SilverSneakers to thousands more nationwide.

Fitness and Flexibility Without Cost to Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries who participate in SilverSneakers have free access to more than 15,000 locations in the Healthways fitness center network nationwide, making it easier to take classes and participate in programs close to home or on the road. Staff members are on site at locations to

help beneficiaries meet their personal wellness goals. Many locations offer amenities, such as exercise equipment, pools, saunas, fitness classes and other activities.

Beneficiaries who cannot get to a fitness location can participate in SilverSneakers Steps, a personalized fitness program that offers kits for general fitness, strength, walking or yoga. Kits are mailed to beneficiaries, and include DVDs and other exercise tools that can be used at home or on the go.

The SilverSneakers online community offers a secure environment that allows beneficiaries to create exercise and nutrition plans, track fitness progress, find health articles and recipes and gain additional support and encouragement.

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Coventry Expands Healthways SilverSneakers® Fitness Program to Its Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries in 13 States

Top health and fitness apps in the iTunes charts in countries around the globe include apps for tracking pregnancy, mountain bike rides, clean eating, and snoring.

Here are details on a selection of top ten iTunes paid and free health and fitness apps by country/region for the week, recorded on October 10.

Belgium: Zappybaby This Dutch app lets moms-to-be track the development of their baby, with daily tips, weekly updates about their body and baby, baby name lists, and checklists. 1.59 itunes.apple.com/be/app/zappybaby/id435469463?l=fr&mt=8

Spain: Snoring U This app monitors your sleep sessions and snoring levels, and reports back to you when you wake up. Plus, if you snore, the app will trigger your phone to vibrate, so you'll rouse from sleep to stop snoring, at least in theory. 3.99. itunes.apple.com/es/app/snoring-u/id338989019?mt=8

France: Runtastic Mountainbike Pro This fitness app - 'Suivi de parcours et performances VTT PRO par runtastic' in French - tracks your off-road rides on your smartphone, with an integration sensor that monitors your heart rate, cadence, and speed. 4.99 itunes.apple.com/fr/app/suivi-parcours-et-performances/id478862935?mt=8

Argentina: Your Ideal Weight This popular weight tracking app, 'Tu Peso Ideal' in Spanish, helps you target your ideal weight based on your height, weight, and BMI. Plus the app sets a date in which you can plan to achieve that weight. Free. itunes.apple.com/ar/app/tu-peso-ideal/id331431138?mt=8

Australia: Clean Eating Guide This app offers detailed instructions on how to clean up your diet with healthy foods. Includes meal size guidelines, plate proportion guide, tips for weights loss, and easy recipes. $1.99 itunes.apple.com/au/app/clean-eating-guide/id564725102?mt=8

Hong Kong: WomanLog This app tracks your menstruations and peak fertility days to keep you informed throughout the month. itunes.apple.com/hk/app/womanlog-calendar/id421360650?mt=8

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Top health/fitness apps: Zappybaby, Snoring U, WomanLog

A bout of long-term unemployment can trigger trauma and uncertainty. Some have equated the emotional fallout with that of a divorce or the death of a loved one.

But Alan Moore, founder of Serenity Financial Consulting in Milwaukee sees potential opportunities for smart retirement planning moves.

"If properly managed, I believe this time can be one of the most beneficial periods in my clients' career(s)," he says.

Following are three ways to turn the sour lemons of job loss into the sweet lemonade of financial security in retirement.

Certified Financial Planner professional Clark Kendall, founder of Kendall Capital, has watched many clients struggle with employment income issues over the last decade.

"First it was the IT people who went through an economic fallout, then real estate people, then bankers," says Kendall, whose firm is based in Rockville, Md. "It's been kind of like a rolling recession."

However, people usually overcome hard times and thrive again in the future, he says. His message to hardworking, out-of-work taxpayers is upbeat: "Your income's falling off, your tax rates are falling off -- let's take advantage of that," he says.

Converting a traditional individual retirement account to a Roth IRA is one of the best ways to plant financial seeds that will bloom in later years, Kendall says.

Small-business owners sometimes use this strategy if they anticipate little or no taxable income in the venture's first several years, Kendall says. Each year, the entrepreneur converts tax-deferred retirement savings earned earlier in his or her career to a Roth IRA.

The entrepreneur pays "a little bit of taxes, maybe at 5%" on the converted retirement savings once deductions and write-offs are figured in, Kendall says.

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Turn Job-Loss Lemons into Retirement Lemonade

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Fidelity Investments, a leading provider of not-for-profit workplace retirement savings plans to higher education employees1, today published a best practices guide for plan sponsors in higher education. The insights in the report are based on plan data and millions of employee-level transactions from 415 higher education plans, representing more than $52 billion in assets and over one million participants. The reports purpose is to illustrate ways that Americas academic institutions can improve retirement readiness among employees.

The report, the first in a series, examines trends in mandatory and voluntary plan design, and highlights three key areas for improvements in plan design, employer and employee contributions, as well as plan participation rates.

Higher education plan sponsors are increasingly looking to their retirement plan to help them attract and retain top talent and increase employee engagement, while ensuring cost effectiveness, said John Ragnoni, executive vice president, Fidelity Tax-Exempt Retirement Services. In order to achieve these goals, its essential for employers to assess and benchmark how elements of their plan design could ultimately impact employees retirement readiness and satisfaction with their benefits offering.

Key Findings:

Fidelitys Six Best Practices for Higher-Education Plan Sponsors

1. Target employee and employer contributions totaling 1015 percent of an employees annual salary to increase retirement readiness.

2. Administer a combined benefits plan of contribution and employer match to increase total contributions, employee engagement and potentially lower costs.

3. Use employer match to increase voluntary participation rates and employee contributions.

4. Consider automatic enrollment to raise voluntary plan participation rates.

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Fidelity® Report Defines Best Practices for Retirement Plan Sponsors in Higher Education

MILWAUKEE, Oct. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Retirement planning is cited as a top reason individuals 18 and older obtain life insurance as part of an overall financial security strategy, according to new research from Northwestern Mutual. The research found that one in four Americans is incorporating life insurance into their retirement planning efforts.

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Marriage stood out as the most common driver (32 percent) for purchasing life insurance, while other factors included the birth of a child (22 percent) and home ownership (19 percent).

"Individuals have long recognized the importance of life insurance in terms of providing financial protection to loved ones in the event of their death. However, these new study results show that people of all ages are also leveraging the flexibility of permanent life insurance to help meet long-term financial goals," said David Simbro, senior vice president of life and annuity products at Northwestern Mutual.

Simbro notes that life insurance plays a crucial role in planning, particularly as people grapple with the challenges of managing longevity in retirement.

The poll also found that:

Northwestern Mutual has a range of resources available to individuals seeking to learn more about longevity risk, life insurance and retirement planning, including:

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Northwestern Mutual from August 10-14, 2012, among 2,097 American adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Contact Northwestern Mutual for complete survey methodology, including weighting variables.

About Northwestern Mutual The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, WI (Northwestern Mutual) among the "World's Most Admired" life insurance companies in 2012 according to FORTUNE magazine has helped clients achieve financial security for more than 155 years. As a mutual company with $1.2 trillion of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual has no shareholders. The company focuses solely and directly on its clients and seeks to deliver consistent and dependable value to them over time. Northwestern Mutual and its subsidiaries offer a holistic approach to financial security solutions including: life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance, annuities, investment products, and advisory products and services. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC, broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company, limited purpose federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company; and Russell Investments.

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Retirement Planning Reported as a Top Reason for Obtaining Life Insurance

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Global asset manager Russell Investments has launched the Russell Retirement Lifestyle Solution, a planning and investment program designed to help build a portfolio specifically for retirement goals. Available only through financial advisors, the program features an adaptive investment model strategy that aims to maintain a suitable clients funded status above 100% in retirement. The three-pronged framework easily leveraged and scalable for the advisor targets the primary concerns of many of their clients, that is, consistent income (reliability), not running out of money (sustainability) and maintaining control of their assets (flexibility).

The new program is initially available through two established partners Cambridge Investment Research and Lincoln Investment Planning and some of Russells largest clients in the Registered Investment Advisor channel.

Advisors are preparing for a sea change in their practices. Clients need more from them more time, more advice, more reassurance they are on track with their savings, and more personalized portfolios, said Sandy Cavanaugh, CEO for Russells advisor-sold business. Advisors know there isnt a magic bullet, but arent completely satisfied with the retirement income options available to them currently. They want to be sure they have the right tools to meet clients needs, while also managing their own practices efficiently and productively. Given this, we think advisors are going to find the Russell Retirement Lifestyle Solution to be a unique and valuable program that will help them navigate the retirement process, deliver a customized solution and provide ongoing support to their clients.

The three-pronged approach

The Retirement Lifestyle Solution consists of:

"Many of our independent advisors strive to provide their clients with financial plans and solutions that lead up to and through retirement, and this is important as clients consider how to plan their retirement spending and make their assets last, said Bobbi Martin, First VP, Marketing, at Cambridge Investment Research. Russells solution serves that effort well and provides advisors with a comprehensive support program to help them engage clients in meaningful, productive conversations on these vital questions.

In developing the Russell Retirement Lifestyle Solution, Russell leveraged proprietary research focused on advisors and their clients, in addition to leveraging its more than 40 years experience applying strategic market insights, global money manager research and rigorous investment processes to create and implement multi-asset portfolios for some of the largest institutional investors.

Investors need and want help managing their retirement assets. Our new offering and related resources aim to help advisors be more relevant, realistic and responsive to their clients, said Tim Noonan, director, Capital Markets Insights for Russells advisor-sold business. Reengaging investors around retirement planning is key in helping individuals avoid the scenario they fear most: running out of money before running out of life. The Russell Retirement Lifestyle Solution is an important element of Russells efforts to help advisors reengage their clients.

Central to the planning process is Russells Adaptive Investing approach to help manage the risk of an investor outliving their assets, which starts by evaluating whether the investor is sufficiently funded to meet their desired lifestyle in retirement. By measuring and managing the clients funded ratio (or ratio of assets to liabilities), an advisor can help answer their clients three key questions: How much can I spend? Will my money last? Am I on track?

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Russell Launches Retirement Lifestyle Solution

By HENRY C. JACKSON Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Short on time and tempers, House and Senate candidates in tight races are turning snarky and personal in their attacks on their opponents.

The stakes, and the unpleasantness, are highest in the race for control of the Senate, where Republicans need to gain four seats to win the majority - only three if Republican Paul Ryan becomes vice president and, in his role as Senate president, breaks any tie votes.

In Massachusetts, GOP Sen. Scott Brown witheringly mocks Democrat Elizabeth Warren's claims of Native American heritage. In Montana, Democratic Sen. Jon Tester pummels Rep. Denny Rehberg for suing a local fire department. Nevada's Sen. Dean Heller calls his opponent, Democratic Rep. Shelly Berkley, "the most corrupt" person he's ever met.

Across the land, candidates are launching incendiary attacks on each other in the final, fretful days of an election year colored by margin-of-error races that have refused to budge.

In the battle for control of the Senate, neither Republicans nor Democrats have put away enough seats to tip the balance of power. Republicans are favored to hold onto the House, where Democrats need to net 25 seats to regain control, but both parties want to win as many seats as possible.

Many candidates have maximized the support they can get by selling their own records and accomplishments and are now going negative, seeking to damage an opponent's credentials and depress his or her support. That point arrived long ago in the presidential contest. Down-ballot, things seem to just now be coming to a boil.

The closer the contest, the harsher the attacks.

Take Montana, home to 1 of the nation's closest and most bitter Senate races.

Sniping between Tester and Rehberg over who's the real Montanan and who's beholden to lobbyists turned harsher in the past week after Democrats launched a trio of ads searing Rehberg for suing a local fire company for damage on his land during a blaze. Tester personally took the matter to Rehberg in a face-to-face debate this week.

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Quincy Herald-Whig | Illinois & Missouri News, SportsTight Senate, House races turn snarky and personal

Austin, Texas, Oct. 10, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trigger Point Performance is honored to be included in the 2012 Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest Growing Companies. This latest achievement is a testament to the years of hard work by CEO and Founder Cassidy Phillips and his personal mission to create innovative products that empower people to accomplish feats they never thought possible.

"I am proud and honored to be a part of the Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest Growing Companies. It's an amazing feeling to realize this personal goal and be in a position to lead a company that continues to grow year after year", says Phillips.

Austin based company Trigger Point Performance is number 898 on the overall list and comes in at number 66 for consumer goods. "It just goes to show you that a team of dedicated individuals, working together to create innovative and life changing products, can pave the way for the American dream," said Phillips.

About Trigger Point Performance: Trigger Point Performance is a life-enhancing brand concentrating on empowering people with revolutionary methodologies and patented products that maintain, regulate, and stimulate the muscular movement of the human body. Our mission is to provide the most practical style of products, education, and therapy to be used by anyone in need of a lifestyle change, performance enhancement or general wellness. Trigger Point Performance has successfully become the leader in personal performance care by marketing its sustainable human energy and in-home massage products to consumers in the athletic, healthcare and personal wellness markets. For more information, visit http://www.tptherapy.com.

About Inc.com: Inc. 500 celebrates the fastest growing, privately held companies in the United States. It was expanded to create Inc. 5000 to help readers get a broader and deeper understanding of the entrepreneurial landscape, as well as recognize a larger percentage of this important and growing market segment.

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Trigger Point Performance Named One of America's Fastest Growing Companies