Even doctors need to be told how to be healthy sometimes.

Kaiser Permanente has launched a monthlong initiative dubbed “Live Well, Be Well” to help its employees make the same healthy choices the health care provider recommends to its members.

As medical care costs rise, preventative corporate wellness programs are becoming one way to keep employees healthy and productive.

“Just like every large employer in the area, we want to emphasize the health and well being of our employees,” said Dr. Jeanne Conry, assistant physician in chief for Kaiser Permanente in Roseville. “Health and wellness is not necessarily about knowledge, it is about finding ways to motivate an employee workforce to become healthier. Our employees balance a busy work-home-life schedule, and those responsibilities sometimes make it challenging to make the healthiest choices.”

Conry is overseeing the initiative, which kicked off Wednesday with a health fair at the Roseville Medical Center campus.

Booths featuring everything from Weight Watchers to the American Heart Association educated Kaiser workers on positive choices for their bodies. Workers received free smoothies from Jamba Juice, listened to live music and even hopped on weight machines to learn how to use them properly.

This month, workers will carry “passports” and check off activities they take part in. There are six wellness categories to guide employees — Healthy eating, physical activity, prevention, emotional health and wellness, healthy workplace and healthy community.

Kaiser members have access to tools and information on healthy choices. The “Live Well, Be Well” is about encouraging Kaiser employees to use them, too.

“This initiative is a way of increasing awareness to our employees and then being able to emphasize many of the tools that already exist for employees and members — such as our online capabilities — who have easy access to health education programs, nutrition classes and information about preventing diseases,” Conry said.

Many other businesses are adding wellness programs to their list of benefits. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, access to these programs have increased in the last decade. From 1998 to 2008, access for full-time workers increased from 35 percent to 54 percent in the public sector and from 19 percent to 28 percent in the private sector.

One reason these programs are offered is good health saves money. Statistics from the California Department of Public Health show the obesity epidemic cost California $21.7 billion in medical care, workers’ compensation and lost productivity costs in 2000.

With such a large employee workforce, Kaiser’s efforts in Roseville represent the same issues felt across the region.

“Our workforce is a microcosm of the workforce in the Sacramento metropolitan area; we have nearly 4,000 employees and more than 300 doctors at our Roseville facilities,” she said.

The “Live Well, Be Well” initiative will last the month of September and will include cancer screenings, competitive sports activities, pledges to not eat fast food and commitments to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Michelle Carl can be reached at michellec@goldcountrymedia

.com.