34 Chicago-area companies earn Healthiest Companies in America recognition

Thirty-four Chicago-area companies have been named as Healthiest Companies in America by Interactive Health, a national leader known for its personalized wellness solutions. The Chicago-area group of winners are among 154 companies across the country being recognized for helping employees make significant and sometimes life-saving changes to improve their health.

With the help of strategic and flexible wellness initiatives, the Healthiest Companies in America recipients have accomplished tremendous success, achieving participation rates in excess of 70 percent and a low-risk health score for their total population, based on rigorous and clinically sound health evaluations.

The health outcomes obtained by employees and spouses of the winning organizations are inspirational. Among all the award-winning companies, 39 percent of employees in a high-risk range moved to a moderate risk or healthy range, while 41 percent of the participants who started in the moderate risk range moved to a healthy state.

Other notable health achievements by the Healthiest Companies in America winners:

• 1 in 4 participants that started in a pre-diabetic range moved to a healthy range;

• More than 80 percent of participants with elevated blood pressure improved their blood pressure;

• 70 percent of participants with elevated LDL cholesterol successfully lowered it.

Chicago-area winners include:

• Aldridge Electric Inc. in Libertyville

• Amalgamated Bank of Chicago in Chicago

• Aquascape Inc. in St. Charles

• Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood

• CCC Information Services Inc. in Chicago

• Chapman and Cutler LLP in Chicago

• Countryside Bank in Countryside

• Custom Data Processing in Romeoville

• Discount Media Products LLC in Elmhurst

• Discover Financial Services in Riverwoods

• Doc's Drugs in Braidwoods

• E.A. Langenfeld Associates, Ltd. in Mount Prospect

• Evanston Township High School in Evanston

• GATX Corporation in Chicago

• GCG Financial Inc. in Deerfield

• General Kinematics Corporation in Crystal Lake

• Huron Consulting Group in Chicago

• Lake Land College in Sycamore

• Marist High School in Chicago

• Maui Jim Inc. in Peoria

• Medela in McHenry

• Midwest Orthopedics at Rush in Westchester

• Mutual Trust Life Insurance Company in Oak Brook

• Neuco Inc. in Downers Grove

• Old Second National Bank in Aurora

• Ozinga Bros. Inc. in Mokena

• PCI in Chicago

• R.J. O'Brien & Associates LLC in Chicago

• Readerlink Distribution Services LLC in Oak Brook

• Sage Products LLC in Cary

• Schulze & Burch Biscuit Company in Chicago

• Sonoma Partners in Chicago

• Telular Corporation in Chicago

• Township High School District 211 in Palatine

"Providing health and wellness programs and benefits to our coworkers is a commitment that Ozinga is proud to support," said Peggy Smith, HR Manager at Ozinga Bros. Inc. "Through these programs, our coworkers are encouraged to focus on their well-being and use tools that can help them succeed in personal health goals. Being awarded as one of the Healthiest Companies in America further encourages us to keep supporting our coworkers on their journey towards good health."

"Discover believes that investing in employee well-being and happiness only strengthens the products and services we are able to provide our customers," said Doug Rose, chief human resource officer for Discover Financial Services. "When employees feel better they can help make the company better, which is one reason we've developed a suite of employee benefits and programs that help employees focus on their health and wellness."

Interactive Health's workplace wellness programs transform companies and their employees by helping people understand how they can improve their health. Beginning with a thorough health evaluation to identify risk, individuals learn more about their health status through: rapid outreach by health coaches, connection to personal physicians and other resources, and a personalized course of action. In addition, members who engage with the Interactive Health member website during their program have a 12-percent higher rate of achievement of personal health goals than those who do not take advantage of the online tools.

"It can be done. The Healthiest Companies in America award recipients prove that employers can both engage their employees and improve their health outcomes," said Cathy Kenworthy, President and CEO of Interactive Health. "With holistic, engaging and personalized workplace wellness programs that encourage and achieve great participation, employees lead healthier and more productive lives. Interactive Health programs are tailored to address both the emotional and physical needs of each person, which has proven to be the most effective approach in empowering individuals to improve their health. We are so proud to applaud the success of each and every organization receiving this award."

Companies choose Interactive Health because they want a wellness partner that helps them embrace wellness as a business strategy and build a health-focused culture that translates into improved health outcomes. Interactive Health's carefully designed strategic, wellness solutions create remarkably high participation and engagement to instill meaningful and lasting behavior changes in employees. The success that the 154 Healthiest Companies in America have achieved is proof that the Interactive Health approach to workplace wellness improves employee health and the health of organizations.

For more information on Healthiest Companies in America, visit interactivehealthinc.com/client-success/healthiest-companies/.

About Interactive Health

Interactive Health (www.interactivehealthinc.com), the country's leading provider of health management solutions, creates innovative wellness programs designed to increase overall company health and actively engage employees to make lasting behavior changes. For every company's perspective on health management, early stage or mature, Interactive Health has a highly flexible program to meet its needs. By offering health evaluations that detect risk proactively, Interactive Health has the capability to immediately intervene and engage at-risk participants with a personalized course of action. Using ActiveEngine, a proprietary algorithmic-based clinical intelligence engine, a unique achievable goal is assigned to each participant based on individual results and health improvements are measured. Interactive Health has a 20+ year track record of creating the Healthiest Companies in America. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.