FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 12, 2008
Media Contact: Brian King, Public Information Officer, Employees Benefits Council, (405) 609-3430 or bking@ebc.state.ok.us
Employees Benefits Council’s OK Health Mentoring Program Featured at Prestigious Health Conference
“Exciting and innovative” is the way leaders of a major national wellness event this week described the OK Health Mentoring Program. Highlights of the program were presented during an invitation-only closed session to a commission of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation during special meetings in Denver, Colo. The event was titled State-as-Employer: Workplace Wellness Initiatives.
Acting on a recommendation from the National Governors Association, the Commission to Build a Healthier America invited Philip K. Kraft, executive director of the Employees Benefits Council, and Nancy Haller, manager of Oklahoma’s state Wellness Program, to participate. They were joined by representatives from only four other states in the closed session for the commissioners. The states were ones identified as having “robust and well-developed activities” and were invited to discuss topics such as benefit design to promote wellness, worksite wellness programs and health-promoting policies in the workplace.
“Despite all we spend on health care as a nation, there is a big gap between how healthy we are and how healthy we could be, and this gap exists for every race and income level,” said Dr. Mark B. McClellan, co-chairman of the Commission. “Many promising strategies are out there – such as those presented in Denver – that show we can take practical steps to close the gap.”
The national, non-partisan commission is investigating how factors such as education, environment, income and housing shape and affect opportunities to lead healthy lives. The commission is identifying non-medical, evidence-based strategies – both short- and long-term – to improve Americans’ health and will issue a set of actionable policy recommendations next April.
Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the United States’ largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. In 2007, the foundation awarded approximately $480 million in grants.
For more information on the Commission to Build a Healthier America, visit www.commissiononhealth.org. To learn more about the OK Health Mentoring Program, go to www.ebc.state.ok.us/en/OKHealth/Pages/OKHealth.aspx.