Wachovia Insurance Services to Offer Tangerine Wellness Program

Market Wire, August, 2007

Tangerine Wellness, the first incentive-based corporate wellness program aimed at reducing the cost of healthcare for employers, has announced an agreement with Wachovia Insurance Services, a full-service brokerage and employee benefits consulting firm for mid- and large-size employers, to market the Tangerine Wellness program to clients in Wisconsin, as well as corporate clients based in Chicago and Northern Illinois. This is the first in a series of offerings planned with Wachovia Insurance Services throughout the United States.

"The cost of healthcare is the biggest issue our clients have today and we understand that the best way to lower healthcare costs is to improve the health of employees," said Anthony Fioretti, managing director for Wachovia Insurance Services in Milwaukee. "Tangerine Wellness focuses on one of the key issues: weight/obesity. The program is appealing because it is a simple, yet effective way for employers to impact benefit plan cost without a huge investment in dollars or administrative time. We recognize this as a great opportunity for our clients to move forward faster and with fewer barriers than some of the more complex wellness programs."

A recent survey found that Wisconsin employers pay about 26.5 percent more to provide health benefits than the national average. Employers' costs averaged $9,516 in 2006 compared with $7,523 nationally. In addition, a Duke University Medical Center analysis found that obese workers filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims, had seven times higher medical costs from those claims and lost 13 times more days of work from work injury or work illness than did non-obese workers.

"Wisconsin employers offer generous health plans and most want to continue providing coverage and are searching for ways to reduce their costs," said Aaron Day, CEO of Tangerine Wellness. "Until now, employers could only choose from an array of complicated wellness programs that do little to motivate employees and show a return-on-investment. Our program provides an incremental plan that starts with weight management and builds from there. Designed to motivate participation through incentives like cash or rewards, the Tangerine program is easy to use and best of all gets results."

"As a self-funded firm, every healthcare cost impacts our bottom line. For several years, we have worked closely with our team members to get them to see how their lifestyle choices impact our profitability," said Todd Radke, director of human resources, Paragon Development Systems, a Wisconsin-based IT infrastructure services company with 222 employees. "Working with Wachovia, we have been gathering data to target specific behaviors on an organizational level. The data revealed that the weight management issue is one of our biggest challenges and provides an opportunity to improve our health plan expenses. We wanted a simple and effective program that all team members could enjoy while providing us with the tools to track results and reward positive behavior changes. That is what makes the Tangerine program so intriguing for us."

Rockford Acromatic, a participating company in the Tangerine Wellness program, located in Rockford, IL, has directly linked its employees' weight-loss achievements to saving over $60,000 in healthcare costs during its first year with Tangerine. On average, Rockford Acromatic was spending approximately $11,000 per employee with Type II diabetes and with the completion of a six-month trial period, their health claims dropped to $5,000 per year for Type II diabetes related care.

The Tangerine Wellness program, which is a non-prescriptive approach to weight-loss and health improvement, focuses on the idea that not just one wellness program will work for everyone. Using Tangerine, employees earn cash and other rewards for losing weight . Employers lower healthcare costs and improve morale and productivity through Tangerine's customized, fully outsourced program that includes a suite of online and offline services. By offering cumulative rewards, and allowing participants to track their results online, Tangerine keeps the program interesting and easy for its participants for the long term.

To learn more about the Tangerine solution, please visit www.tangerinewellness.com or contact Anthony Fioretti at Wachovia Insurance Services at http://www.wachoviainsurance.com or call (414) 270-3077.

About Tangerine Wellness

Founded in 2004, Tangerine Wellness is the leading corporate weight-management program that directly rewards employees for losing weight and for maintaining a healthy weight. Tangerine's interactive weight-loss program has a direct and positive effect on employee healthcare costs, morale and productivity. Tangerine has successfully implemented programs in the manufacturing, financial services, healthcare and government/university entities that are translating into direct healthcare cost-savings. The company's collective leadership includes Sen. Bill Bradley and top executives with expertise in corporate wellness, healthcare and benefits administration. Tangerine is headquartered in Boston, with offices in Chicago, Houston and New York. Go to www.tangerinewellness.com for further information.