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Shaping up the workforce

...Last month, she was named winner of Healthyroads ''Get Healthy'' National Awards Program and was given a trip to California to accept a $25,000 check.COST EFFECTIVEThe reason why Mercy and so many other employers are getting involved is that losing a bit of weight or exercising more can be far more effective than spending a lot of dollars on opening clogged arteries.The irony is that in our affluent society with high-tech robotic surgical knives and drug-coated stents, many of us lead sedentary lives and eat high-fat foods that damage our health more than any MRI machine can help.

''It's tough living in America,'' says Maribeth Rouseff, the wellness guru at Baptist Health South Florida.Overall, 50 percent of a person's health is caused by his or her own behavior, according to Mercer, a benefits consultant.

Twenty percent is from genetics and another 20 percent is related to environmental issues.

The final 10 percent concerns access to care - an issue affecting the 47 million Americans who lack health insurance.Other studies show ''you can virtually cut healthcare costs in half if the employee is a nonsmoker, nonobese and engages in physical activity three times a week,'' says Bruce Shanefield, who's in the Miami office of the Aon consulting firm.With numbers like that, employers are jumping on the wellness bandwagon.

''National statistics show 85 percent of companies now have wellness programs,'' says Kay Gulick of FlashPoint52, a wellness consulting and health ...

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Shaping up the workforce