Beginning today, qualifying benefits-eligible university faculty and staff can register for MHealthy Rewards by taking an online health questionnaire and signing up for health and well-being activities. Completing the questionnaire and two approved activities will earn participants a $100 before-tax incentive.
MHealthy Rewards continues the efforts of last year’s wellness assessment program to help improve the health of the university community and help contain the long-term rise of health-related costs. MHealthy Rewards health and well-being activities focus on five key risk areas: eating right/managing weight, moving more, being tobacco free, managing stress, and preventing and managing health conditions.
“We learned a lot in the last year thanks to the success of the wellness assessments,” says LaVaughn Palma-Davis, senior director of University Health & Well-Being Services. “We suspected weight and exercise were going to be high on the list of health risk concerns but the data also indicated stress as a significant factor for about a quarter of the participants. This was valuable to learn. We now better understand what our community needs to feel well and reduce health risks, and we used these findings in the design of the Rewards program.”
Where last year’s wellness assessments included a health screening appointment, Palma-Davis says MHealthy Rewards focuses on taking action throughout the year to achieve personal health goals. “Our goal was to create a program that engages people in healthy behaviors and is easy for anyone to complete,” Palma-Davis says.
Health questionnaire
The health questionnaire is confidential and, like last year, is administered by StayWell® Health Management, a national provider of health improvement services. It takes less than 15 minutes and must be completed by April 9 for the participant to be eligible to earn the $100 incentive.
The gateway to participating in MHealthy Rewards is finishing the health questionnaire. “Once you’ve completed this, you’ll be able to view your personal health report to help you choose activities that best meet your needs,” Palma-Davis says. Participation in activities can occur throughout the year.
Health and well-being activities
A wide range of activities are eligible for Rewards such as: Active U, Weight Watchers, MHealthy fitness consults, tobacco treatment programs, stress management series, visiting a physician for a preventive screening, participating in personal health coaching through Staywell and tracking eating habits or physical activity online. The majority of activities are free to join and the costs of some with participation fees, like Weight Watchers, have been reduced.
Participants can access the complete list of eligible activities on the StayWell Web site using its new Points Bank feature. Points Bank also shows the participant’s progress toward reaching the goal of 100 Reward points, which earns the $100 incentive. Completing the health questionnaire is worth 20 points and completing eligible activities is worth an additional 80 points. Employees can expect to see the reward in their paycheck approximately 45 days after the 100 points show up in Points Bank.
MHealthy encourages planning ahead and signing up for activities early since participants will need to register and begin most of the activities by mid-summer in order for them to qualify for MHealthy Rewards.
For more information on MHealthy Rewards and to get started, go to www.mhealthy.umich.edu/rewards.
