ROCKVILLE, Md. (March 1, 2010) – UnitedHealthcare has announced the UnitedHealthcare Spring Walk for Health Challenge, a four-week event that raises money for charities and nonprofits and helps local organizations jumpstart their employee wellness activities.

The UnitedHealthcare Spring Walk for Health Challenge is open to employers, health care providers, and broker and consultant groups in the District of Columbia metropolitan area that includes parts of Maryland and Virginia. The four-week challenge will begin April 5, when teams of participants will start logging the number of hours walked each day.

There will be a winner in each of three categories – employers, brokers and providers. The team in each category with the highest average number of hours walked will win a traveling trophy, a healthful lunch and a $500 donation to the March of Dimes. Winners will be notified on May 15. The participation fee of $10 per person will also be donated to the March of Dimes.

"Walking more every day is a manageable way for people to become more active and improve their well-being," said Jim Cronin, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic. "The UnitedHealthcare Walk for Health Challenge aims to motivate people to improve their health one step at a time, while also benefiting important health charities and nonprofits."

In last fall's inaugural Walk for Health Challenge, employees at Grunley Construction in Rockville and Meltzer Group Benefits in Bethesda were crowned winners with averages of 48 hours and 26 hours walked per participant, respectively, over the four-week challenge.

"The UnitedHealthcare Walk for Health Challenge was a fun competition that motivated us to get fit as a group," said Peggy Lopez of Meltzer Group Benefits. "It proved to be a great team-building activity as we became healthier together."

For more information, or to register a team, contact Michelle Levy. The deadline to submit a team registration form is Monday, March 26.

UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic serves 1.5 million health plan participants in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., through a health care provider network that includes more than 27,000 doctors and other health care professionals and 215 hospitals.

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to individuals, public sector employers and businesses of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 100 companies. The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of approximately 25 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 600,000 physicians and care professionals and 5,000 hospitals to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.