August 23, 2012

Mayor Emanuel Announces 47 Percent Participation in Wellness to Date

Whopping 99.8 Percent of Respondents Choose to Join the Program

Mayor's Press Office    312.744.3334

Just over three weeks into the sign-up period for the City of Chicago's innovative wellness program, Mayor Emanuel today announced that nearly 50 percent of City employees and eligible spouses have joined the program.

"Our program will change lives, make our workforce healthier, and save taxpayers money," said Mayor Emanuel. "It will only work if people join and I'm so pleased to report that we've had well over 22,000 employees or spouses join the program."

22.420 employees or spouses have joined the program. Virtually every respondent has chosen to join the program. Only 54 employees or spouses have reported and chosen not to join -- a staggering 99.8% acceptance rate. There are still approximately 25,500 employees who have yet to either join or decline to participate.

The Wellness Program, Chicago Lives Healthy, is an innovative program that provides free annual health screenings, check-ups, call-ins, and programming for employees and eligible spouses. The program includes workers from the City of Chicago as well as four sister agencies -- the Chicago Park District, The Chicago Housing Authority, City Colleges of Chicago, and the Chicago Public Schools. With over 47,000 eligible employees and spouses, it is the largest municipal wellness program in the world.

The Wellness program will accept responses from employees and spouses until August 31. The website for the program is ChicagoLivesHealthy.org.  

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