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Frequently Asked Questions What is the Health Assessment?
What is the Health Assessment? The Health Assessment is an online tool that lets you and your covered spouse learn about your health status and risks, become more health aware and discover ways to improve health-related behaviors. To participate in the Health Assessment, you simply fill in an online questionnaire about yourself and your health. The entire process is confidential. Based on your answers to the questions, you will be offered the opportunity to participate in online programs aimed at reducing your risks and measuring your improvement. The Health Assessment may be able to identify conditions and risk factors before they develop into chronic conditions requiring complex care. Why should I take the Health Assessment? The Health Assessment evaluates more than 30 different health indicators to determine your risks for certain health conditions. Even if you are generally familiar with healthy behaviors, you might find that the Health Assessment considers factors you haven’t thought of. That means it might uncover areas of concern that you might be missing and warn you about them while there’s still time to do something about them. The Health Assessment assists you in several ways. It will help you to understand your health risks more fully. And you will be given an Action Plan that will advise you about taking steps to reduce those risks. You can choose from interactive tools and take advantage of helpful articles to learn more about how to enhance your health. Your Action Plan can give you a boost in developing a fuller personal or family plan for better health through diet, nutrition and exercise. Information from your Health Assessment will also be prefilled into your Personal Health Record (PHR), making your PHR even more comprehensive and more valuable to you. Through the Health Assessment, other programs are available that can assist you with your health goals. The Healthy Connections - Informed Choices program can put you in touch with a health coach, a specially trained registered nurse who can offer advice and guidance for changing your lifestyle, getting care for a serious illness or living with a chronic condition. The program can also connect you with a dietitian, your Employee Assistance Program (EAP), tobacco cessation benefits, or resources that might be useful if you have upcoming inpatient or outpatient care. How do I access the Health Assessment? You can link to this valuable tool by clicking here for the Aetna Health Assessment or clicking here for the UnitedHealthcare Health Assessment. Remember, if you are a Kaiser member choose the Aetna Health Assessment. You will be asked to log on or create a user name and password. If you already have an account with Aetna Navigator®, Aetna’s Simple Steps To A Healthier Life®, or at UnitedHealthcare’s myuhc.com, you can use that user name and password. Click here for Step-by-step instructions for accessing a health assessment. Is the Health Assessment relatively easy to take? Yes, the assessment is relatively easy to complete and should take only 15 to 20 minutes, a very small investment of time considering the power and value it can bring you. You will be asked to provide information about your current health and lifestyle, along with other facts about yourself. To complete your Assessment, you will want to have your most recent results available for your blood pressure; total, LDL and HDL cholesterol; triglycerides; blood sugar and cardio-CRP. Check your Personal Health Record (PHR) where these values may be available to you as well as through your physician’s office. It is also helpful to know the dates of your last medical and dental checkups, as well as screenings, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, you’ve had. After completing the Health Assessment, you’ll receive a comprehensive and confidential report outlining your health status and strengths, as well as recommendations for addressing health risks based on your risk level and your readiness to change. Use it to talk with your doctors, your spouse or your family about health concerns and goals.* * “Spouse” includes a traditional spouse, same-sex domestic partner, or civil union partner Why doesn’t the Health Assessment account for my specific conditions or dietary situation? The Health Assessment is meant to cover your general health with a brief Assessment. It can provide valuable personalized feedback, based solely on your responses to the questions contained in the Health Assessment. Because it focuses on major aspects of health, the Assessment is not able to account for every person’s specific health-related situation. For example, it might not touch on dealing with a special health condition or following a special diet. These tools are intended to encourage and support the doctor/patient dialogue, not replace it. You and your doctor should work together to understand your particular concerns. You should print your Health Assessment results and take it with you to the doctor to help in your discussions. You may also be given the opportunity to discuss your health problems with a health coach, who is a specially trained registered nurse, if your Health Assessment answers identify you as eligible for the Healthy Connections - Informed Choices program. What do you do with the information that is collected from me about my health and lifestyle? The information in your Health Assessment is used to generate recommendations for ways you and your covered spouse can improve your overall health and reduce certain health risks. You can also share the reports with your doctor to provide a more complete picture of your health. In addition, the information you supply is used to support overall health care benefits administration programs. For example, it may be made available to our registered nurses to help coordinate your care and assist you with appropriate disease-management tools. Your information may be used and disclosed in accordance with HIPAA Privacy Rules. That means your employer will not be able to use your information in any way related to your employment. In addition, security procedures are in place to protect your information from unauthorized access. Your information is stored in the provider’s secure database behind an electronic firewall. What measures are in place to protect my Health Assessment information? As part of each carrier’s existing commitment to information privacy, they have extensive operational and technical protections in place. And both are continually improving and updating those protections. Your Health Assessment information is kept strictly confidential in accordance with health plan privacy policies and federal and state laws. Who can see my Health Assessment information? You control your Health Assessment information, so you decide who can see the information in it. For example, you can print your information and share it with your doctors, or a friend or family member who might have your medical Power of Attorney. Please click on the Web Privacy link that appears on every page of the Health Assessment site to learn more. You may also review the UPS Notice of Health Plans Privacy Practices. Can my health carrier use my Health Assessment information to deny medical coverage or change my rates? No. Nothing you put in your Health Assessment can affect your medical coverage. In fact, the purpose of the Health Assessment is to help you take a more active role in managing your own health. It can identify health risks and problems before they develop into something more serious. The goal of the Health Assessment is to make it easier for you to understand your health risks and address them in an effective way. Health Assessment Follow-up programs are online programs designed to help you address certain behaviors that add to your health risks, and the health problems that may result. These practical, step-by-step programs can help you make healthy changes in your life in an enjoyable and effective way. Areas covered include Weight Loss, Get in Shape, Stress Relief, Healthy Eating, Healthy Heart, Disease Fighting (Cancer, Diabetes), Smoking Cessation, Alcohol Awareness, and Healthy Aging and more. Based on your answers to the Health Assessment questions, you may receive recommendations for Follow-up programs that you will find beneficial for your particular needs. How do I start a Follow-up program? After you complete the Health Assessment, you can start a Follow-up program by clicking on its name in your action plan. For most programs, you will take a pre-assessment, and then you can begin your program. Can I participate in more than one program at a time? No. If you start a new program without finishing your current one, you will have to start your current program from the beginning if you decide you want to complete it at a later time. I completed one step of a program. How do I proceed to the next step? Each step of a program lasts at least seven days from the day you start. You can complete only one step at a time. The program progresses to the next step when you log on after completing the seventh day. You can take as long as you like to finish the seven days of the program. This way, if you can’t log on—because you’re on vacation or business travel, or life is just coming at you too fast—your program does not continue without you. You pick up where you left off. How do I know when I’m ready to begin the next step of my program? If you select the option to receive weekly reminder emails, you’ll get an email letting you know when your next step is available. If you don’t select the email reminder option, you can log on and see your program step at the top of the page. How many steps are in a Follow-up program? Programs vary in length depending on the carrier and the specific program. A typical program is six weeks long. Detailed information is available on your medical carrier's portal. Are there other programs available besides the Follow-up programs? Yes. Several other programs are available:
Why do I keep getting an “unanswered questions” error while completing the Health Assessment? If you have skipped any required questions, you will see an error message at the top of the page to alert you. Look for an exclamation point (!) identifying the questions that you didn’t answer. Scroll through carefully to find the questions that need answers. How can I unsubscribe from the Health Assessment, Follow-up programs or stop receiving emails? You can unsubscribe from emails or from the program altogether at the My Profile page. But the programs offer you valuable opportunities to improve your health. Participating in programs will help you reach your health goals – for example, getting in shape, eating better, losing weight and coping better with stress. Please be sure you are ready to give up these opportunities before you unsubscribe. |
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