National Business Group on Health Recognizes Verizon as a Best Employer for Healthy ...( NEW YORK June 24 /- The National Busi...),Health

NEW YORK, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Business Group on Health (NBGH) has named Verizon to its 2009 list of Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles.

Verizon earned a spot in the list's Gold Category for helping employees make better choices about health and well-being. The company provides 100 percent coverage for preventive care. To help promote a healthy lifestyle, Verizon also manages 44 Health & Wellness Centers on company sites nationwide. Employees in Verizon locations without a wellness center have access to discounted memberships at more than 2,000 health clubs.

"Employers know first-hand that a healthy workforce is essential to increasing productivity and to maintaining a competitive edge in the new global economy," said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health.

In 2008, Verizon spent $3.7 billion to provide health care benefits for more than 830,000 employees, retirees and their dependants. Three years ago, the company introduced the Verizon HealthZone, an online resource for health information that helps employees make informed decisions about their health care. More than 10 percent of Verizon's employees had enrolled in HealthZone by the end of 2008.

The company believes that a healthy lifestyle promotes productive and engaged employees, who are capable of meeting the challenges posed by busy personal and professional lives. To that end, Verizon's employee assistance program, VZ-LIFE, provides resources for dealing with personal problems and challenges related to parenting and child care, adult care, health and wellness, moving and relocation, and many other issues.

Verizon's work-family policies are designed to give tools to employees to help them manage their lives. For instance, in 2008 the company provided employees with 37,500 hours in emergency backup care for employees' children -- time that employees would have oth
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