Healthfirst is Second Biggest Loser in “The NYC Matchup” Weight-Loss Contest
October 11, 2011
Laura Vialva
212-801-1451
718-764-3517 (mobile)
Lvialva@healhfirst.org
New York, NY, October 11, 2011 – Healthfirst staff members were announced as the second-place winners of the 2011 “New York City (NYC) Matchup” weight-loss contest. Sponsored by HealthyWageTM – the only U.S. company paying Americans to lose weight and get healthy – the New York City Matchup awarded top-performing individual and corporate teams with a total of $18,000 in cash prizes. The Healthfirst team will share the $5,000 second-place award.
Healthfirst participated for the first time in this three-month-long weight-loss contest that included companies from the entire New York City region. Corporate teams comprised of five members each competed vigorously during the challenge. The Healthfirst team – named “Weapons of Mass Reduction” – lost 134 pounds in total by changing their eating habits, exercising and meeting weekly to support each other with their fitness goals. The top three teams lost more than 400 pounds collectively and the hundreds of remaining competition participants lost more than 5,000 pounds collectively. Continuum Health Partners took home the first prize and the St. Luke’s-Roosevelt team won third place.
“I heartily congratulate the Healthfirst team for its success in the New York City Matchup contest,” said Pat Wang, Healthfirst President and CEO. “I know how challenging it was to achieve this result and I’m thrilled and proud of our team for what they accomplished for themselves, first and foremost, and for their team.”
A total of 11 companies participated in this year’s contest, and the national contest drew 220 companies across the country. Participants cite the contest’s accountability, spirit of competition, and big cash prizes as major motivators, all validating HealthyWage’s founding premise that a financial incentive is one of the most effective methods for motivating health-seekers to make positive diet, fitness and lifestyle changes.
“The New York City Matchup leveraged our social network model proven to help motivate and sustain weight loss,” said HealthyWage co-founder David Roddenberry. “While our company pays all New York City residents $100 to lose weight as a standard part of our flagship, year-long ‘BMI Challenge’ program, we’ve found that the free $100 cash incentive is more effective at motivating weight loss when coupled with a Matchup or other kind of contest to build excitement and peer support in working toward weight-loss goals.”
About Healthfirst
Established in 1993, Healthfirst is a not-for-profit managed care organization that offers low or no-cost health insurance to eligible individuals and families living in the New York metropolitan area and New Jersey. It provides a variety of government-sponsored health insurance programs, including New York State's Child Health Plus, Family Health Plus, and Medicaid, as well as Medicare Advantage. The Healthfirst family of companies includes Healthfirst in New York, Healthfirst NJ in New Jersey, and Senior Health Partners (SHP), a managed long term care plan serving Medicaid-eligible clients in New York City. For more information, visit the company's websites at www.healthfirst.org and www.healthfirstnj.org.
About HealthyWage™
Health and wellness purveyor HealthyWage provides cash incentives, social and expert-based support, tools and resources, and goal-setting and tracking technologies to address our nation’s obesity epidemic and improve America’s collective health. The company was founded in response to academic research that proves even small cash rewards triple the effectiveness of weight-loss programs; that people are more effective at losing weight when their own money is at risk; and that social networks play a large role in the spread of obesity, and will likely play a large role in reversing obesity. Learn more online at www.HealthyWage.com.
