Health Net Launches Health Net Foundation With a Three-Year $1.35 Million Grant to American Heart Association
Health Net, Inc. (NYSE:HNT) today announced the launch of the Health Net Foundation with a three-year grant totaling $1.35 million to the American Heart Association to support its Start! movement in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties in California and in San Antonio, Texas. Start! is a Heart Association program that helps Americans of all ages — from children to seniors — improve their heart health by walking.
The Health Net Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Health Net, Inc., is a nonprofit corporation that will make charitable contributions to qualified organizations that promote wellness and preventive care, combat the growing childhood obesity crisis and support health-related programs for our military families. “The Foundation is dedicated to helping individuals, especially in underserved communities, better understand their health and help them make healthy lifestyle choices,” said Jay Gellert, Health Net’s president and chief executive officer and chairman of the Health Net Foundation. “The American Heart Association’s Start! movement is a perfect fit with the Foundation’s mission. Walking is an important contributor to wellness and an activity that is easily accessible to individuals of all income levels — it’s free. It also has the lowest dropout rate of any exercise.”
Health Net of California chief medical officer Charles Payton stated, “We see Start! as an especially effective program for seniors. A brisk 30-minute walk each day can help lower cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, two critical health issues for seniors. A regular walking program also can help overweight individuals achieve and maintain weight loss and reduce stroke risk.”
For more information, contact the Health Net Foundation at 818.676.6000 or health.net.foundation@healthnet.com.
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary health organization dedicated to reducing disability and death from cardiovascular diseases and strokes. Launched January 2007 and focused on walking, Start! encourages individuals, corporations and their employees to promote and engage in physical fitness and break down the barriers that keep Americans from being physically active.
Health Net Foundation
The Health Net Foundation was created in 2007 as a philanthropic arm of Health Net, Inc. Its mission is to serve as a resource to improve people’s health in underserved communities that Health Net, Inc. serves. To achieve its goals, the Foundation fosters the development of programs that enhance health care access and promote health education. By encouraging health and wellness in every stage of life, the Foundation strives to support Health Net’s mission to help people be healthy, secure and comfortable. Health Net, Inc. is among the nation’s largest publicly traded managed health care companies, providing health benefits to approximately 6.6 million individuals across the country through group, individual, Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE and Veterans Affairs programs. MHN, Health Net’s behavioral health subsidiary, provides mental health benefits to approximately 7.0 million individuals in all 50 states.