PRESS RELEASE

UnitedHealthcare Launches Step Up for Better Health Sweepstakes to Encourage Walking and Support Boys & Girls Clubs

March 29, 2018
  • Sweepstakes celebrates National Walking Day and April’s Move More Month, enabling people to enter for a chance to win one of hundreds of walking-related prizes, including Apple Watch
  • People can sign the pledge to walk more and enter the sweepstakes at uhcwalkingmaps.com, which provides 10,000-step walking routes in more than 50 cities across the country
  • UnitedHealthcare will donate a total of $25,000 on behalf of the first 25,000 people to sign the pledge to Boys & Girls Clubs to help reduce childhood obesity

UnitedHealthcare has launched the Step Up for Better Health Sweepstakes, a national initiative to encourage walking and in support of Boys & Girls Clubs.

The sweepstakes celebrates National Walking Day (April 4) and runs throughout Move More Month (April), enabling people to become eligible for a chance to win one of hundreds of walking-related prizes, including:

  • Grand Prizes: Apple Watch® (10 available);
  • First Prizes: $100 gift cards to Foot Locker (100 available); and
  • Family Prizes: NERF® ENERGY™ Game Kits (100 available).

People can sign the pledge to walk more and enter the sweepstakes at uhcwalkingmaps.com, an online resource that provides information about the potential health benefits of walking and offers 10,000-step walking routes in more than 50 cities, helping people visualize what that distance looks like in their local areas*. UnitedHealthcare will donate $1 on behalf of each of the first 25,000 people to sign the pledge to Boys & Girls Clubs to help reduce childhood obesity and encourage kids to become more active.

Studies have shown walking can help people maintain a healthier weight, strengthen bones, ward off depression, and prevent or manage various chronic conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

“We hope our Step Up for Better Health Sweepstakes helps encourage people to become more active and use walking as a way to improve their health,” said Sam Ho, M.D., chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare. “Walking can be a simple, accessible and effective way for most people to help improve their well-being, so we encourage all who are capable to get or stay active in April and year round.”

UnitedHealthcare offers various wellness programs that help encourage people to take charge of their health**.

For example, UnitedHealthcare Motion® is a digital wellness program that provides eligible plan participants access to wearable devices that may enable them to earn more than $1,000 per plan year by meeting certain daily walking goals***. Through the program, enrollees will later this year have the option to receive and start using Apple Watch (initially paying only tax and shipping), and apply program earnings toward the full purchase price of the device.

UnitedHealthcare Motion is available to employers with self-funded and fully insured health plans nationwide. The program may enable employees to earn up to $4 per day in financial incentives based on achieving “FIT” goals, which stands for:

  • Frequency: complete 500 steps within seven minutes six times per day, at least an hour apart;
  • Intensity: complete 3,000 steps within 30 minutes; and
  • Tenacity: complete at least 10,000 total steps each day.

Since UnitedHealthcare Motion’s inception, participants have collectively walked more than 180 billion steps and earned nearly $30 million in rewards. Among eligible employees, 66 percent registered their devices, with more than two-thirds of those active with the program.

UnitedHealthcare developed the program in collaboration with Qualcomm Life, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, and leverages its open ecosystem of integrated devices. The program uses Qualcomm Life’s medical-grade connectivity and expertise in HIPAA-compliant, secure data transmission from integrated devices to UnitedHealthcare via the program’s mobile app.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.

 

*Check with your doctor to determine what activity level is right for you.
** Participation in any UnitedHealthcare product or program is not a requirement to participate in the sweepstakes.
***Financial incentives may be less due to limits under applicable laws.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Open to legal residents of 50 U.S. and D.C., 18 or older. To Enter: Visit www.UHCWalkingmaps.com (“Website”) between 12:01 AM CT on 3/29/18 and 11:59 PM CT on 4/30/18, follow online instructions, and agree to take the “Step Up for Better Health” Pledge to be healthier. Prizes: Grand (10): Apple Watch® (ARV $329); First (100): $100 Foot Locker® gift card; Second (100): NERF® ENERGY™ kit (ARV $35). Limit 1 entry per person. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received for each drawing. See Website for drawing dates, details, limitations & Official Rules. United HealthCare Services, Inc., Minnetonka, MN 55343.