Buyers Health Care Action Group Set To Profile Minn. Governor's 'Fit Workplaces' Initiative.

HPI Advisors, LLC Leadership Summit Slated For June 21 Envisions Healthy Living As Good Fiscal Health and Prudent Business Strategy

DENVER -- Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dianne Mandernach will discuss the Pawlenty Administration's "Fit Workplaces" initiative at the Buyers Health Care Action Group (BHCAG) Employer Leadership Summit that will help Minnesota employers of all sizes encourage their workers to get fit and lead healthier lives.

"I'm pleased to be able to speak at the Summit about the administration's 'Fit Workplaces' Initiative," Mandernach said. "By encouraging employers, large and small, to adopt worksite wellness programs, we can do much to improve the overall health of the state."

The Summit, produced by HPI Advisors, LLC (health and performance improvement) in Denver, Colo., is a community-based, collaborative project of employers and multiple stakeholders built around value-based benefit designs. that pinpoint healthy living and working strategies, as well as designate healthy performance best practices to achieve better health outcomes and business performance results.

The inaugural BHCAG Summit, Healthy Living Healthy Working - Employers Helping Employees to Better Health, will be held June 21, 2007 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Park Plaza Hotel Bloomington, Bloomington, Minn.

The Governor's "Fit Workplaces" initiative was funded by a grant from the National Governors Association (NGA). Minnesota was one of 13 states to receive a Healthy States grant from the NGA. Governor Pawlenty's Healthy Minnesota "Fit Workplaces" Initiative includes the following:

* Creation of a Workplace Wellness Toolkit and Web site for employers to use to implement workplace wellness programs;

* Grants to public and private sector workplaces to test use of the Toolkit; and

* A Governor's Healthy Minnesota Summit in summer 2007 to promote the initiative statewide.

Commissioner Mandernach will profile employer participants in the "Fit Workplaces" pilot program. Employers include: Winona County, Steele County, Duluth Public Schools, DuraSupreme Cabinetry, UCare and Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Furthermore, Commissioner Mandernach will delineate the Governor's initiative to combat childhood obesity in Minnesota.

"The Governor's 'Fit Workplaces' initiative advances healthy living, healthy working and promises a better quality of life for generations to come," states Carolyn Pare, chief executive officer of the BHCAG in Bloomington, Minn. She maintains keeping people healthy in Minnesota is a sound fiscal strategy for employers, employees, government and taxpayers alike.

In addition, there will be an array of companies on hand sharing their employee-centered strategies and evidence-based best practices. The organizations include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota; Carlson Companies; Employer-Based Pharmaceutical Strategies, LLC.; Employers Association, Inc.; HealthPartners; Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement; Lincoln Industries; Medica; Miall Consulting; The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and WellPoint, Inc.

Leading firms sponsoring the Summit to date include Healthways, Inc.; Mercer Health & Benefits; Pfizer, Inc. and sanofi-aventis. Supporting organizations of the Summit include the Employee Benefits Planner, The Industry Radar, Minnesota Council of Health Plans and Minnesota Pharmacists Association.

"Having spent my first 23 years in Moorhead, it is invigorating to return to Minnesota to facilitate a community-based, collaborative health and performance improvement project with BHCAG - and extremely exciting, to support Commissioner Mandernach to help promote the Governor's 'Healthy Minnesota Summit' initiative being planned for mid August 2007," states Les C. Meyer, president and CEO of HPI Advisors, LLC.

Combined with a larger effort to reduce childhood obesity 50% by 2012, "Fit Workplaces" has sought to stem health problems that can become increasing problematic with age. The initiative also recognizes that improving health in the workplace is important because at least 50% of an organization's health care costs are driven by lifestyle-related behaviors of employees. Governor Pawlenty has said that if Minnesota employers convinced just 10% of their workforce to begin a regular walking program, the state would save $109 million annually in heart disease-related expenditures.

About Minnesota Department of Health

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) performs a wide range of critical public health duties every day and regularly identifies public health issues that need special attention. The MDH is focusing on several priorities that include preparing for public health emergencies; ensuring quality care in nursing homes and other health care facilities; improving the quality of health care and controlling rising costs; eliminating health disparities; and maintaining basic responsibilities of public health such as safe food and water, immunizations, newborn screening, disease prevention and control. For more information go to: www.health.state.mn.us/index.html

About BHCAG

The Buyers Health Care Action Group (BHCAG) is dedicated to helping health care consumers get the care they need at the right time, in the right place, at the right price. Its mission is to recreate the health care system to focus on a collective goal of optimal health and total value. The BHCAG creates value for its members by pursuing strategies that openly challenge conventional practice and foster innovation; aggressively pursue performance improvement; actively influence the behavior of all stakeholders to achieve alignment in providing and purchasing health care; and proactively engage and connect members to initiatives that further a goal of optimal health and total value. For more information go to: www.bhcag.com

About HPI Advisors, LLC

HPI Advisors, LLC (health and performance improvement) is a think tank of national experts seeking solutions to the upward spiral of health care costs and downward spiral of the nation's overall health. The company's mission is to facilitate community-based, collaborative projects with employers and all stakeholders that are built around value-based benefit designs. that pinpoint healthy living and working strategies, as well as designate healthy performance best practices to achieve better health outcomes and business performance results. For more information go to: www.healthandperformance.info