We believe that a healthy and productive workforce is at the heart of a healthy and successful business. As part of our delivery of health care benefits to approximately 740,000 employees, retirees and their families, we make health and wellness a central part of our culture.

Our health care programs engage and empower those we cover to be informed and proactive in managing and improving their health. Our comprehensive approach combines access to quality health care benefits, health-literacy resources and tools, and preventive and early detection services, all accessible through an expanding set of devices and technology platforms.

Our “Be Well, Work Well” programs aim to drive behavioral change through education and engagement.

Our WellConnect portal provides personalized health information, interactive online tools, mobile apps, a video library and healthy living tips. Onsite, we offer 46 low-cost health and wellness centers as well as free health screenings, mammography screenings and flu shots at 150 locations. Offsite, we offer discounts at 10,000 fitness facilities and free screenings at 2,000 medical facilities. In addition, employees are incented to complete health screenings and stop smoking through premium reductions.

Participation levels are increasing, and we’re seeing positive results. In 2013, more than 7,000 employees received biometric screenings, more than 20,000 received flu shots, and more than 17,000 participated in our fitness centers. Seventy-eight percent of employees with high blood pressure in 2010 had lowered it by 2012, 45 percent with high glucose in 2010 no longer had it in 2012 and employees had shed 85,000 pounds in those two years.

To empower employees to be proactive and make informed decisions, we educate about costs in areas such as low-intensity emergency room visits and usage of imaging services and provide online tools to conduct cost and service quality research. We also provide a new telemedicine capability that is an Internet-based tool through which users connect with a doctor using two-way video service.

Technology is creating an age of tremendous new possibilities. Verizon is working to use powerful platforms to spur innovation and drive transparency by connecting developers with practitioners and consumers. By creating converged solutions that leverage all of our greatest assets: mobility, cloud, security and extensive consulting expertise., we believe that our society is on the cusp of an exciting new era of delivering affordable, quality health care services and solutions across our planet.