Many of us have personal goals for own health. And while this program is new to us—and might be causing you some worries and concern—we’re wanting to provide additional details that can help you personalize Choose Well to meet your needs. Some common themes have been around: accessibility and privacy concerns, and increased worry and stress. This was not the intent of moving to the Choose Well program. The following will address, and hopefully ease, some of the concerns.
Engaging daily is not a requirement. It’s true, choosing to participate in the program every day will get you to Level 4 of the Choose Well game faster—but rest assured, it’s not required. The Choose Well team has offered you the opportunity to pick and choose portions you want to participate in. Take for example: If you have a confidential well-being conversation with your doctor at any time throughout the year (15,000 points), participate in the quarterly challenges (5,000 points each, more on those later), and take your confidential health assessment (5,000 points), you can get through the entire Choose Well game without even tracking your activities.
Take your time! No need to worry, you have all year until November 16 to participate in Choose Well. The intent of the program is not to cause you stress by making you feel rushed. But, like we use reflections to center ourselves and focus on what is most important when gathered together, Choose Well is designed to help you take time to reflect on your own personal health and well-being.
Owning a smartphone or activity tracker is not required to participate in this program, and if you don’t own a computer, we have computer labs available for you to complete portions of the program when you have time throughout the year. This week, we’ve turned on the option to manually enter your estimated steps in order to receive full points. And like above, you don’t need to feel pressured to engage with Choose Well every day. You choose your pace and path. If one day you decide you want to start tracking your activities with an activity tracker, all caregivers are eligible to purchase one for a discount on the “Shop” tab of the Virgin Pulse app and “Store” tab in the drop down beneath your profile icon.
Earning 15,000 points for your Provider Visit form just got easier! We heard your feedback and have made some changes to the process that we really think you are going to appreciate. No more paper required. Just strike up a conversation with your provider at your next visit and receive 15,000 points by completing the online attestation form. You will just need to share your Provider’s name and the date of your visit and check the box and submit. You will find this online visit form in the programs section of your Choose Well Account. Scroll down until you see “Strike Up a Conversation with your Physician” and get started.
Challenges are a team effort with your colleagues and will happen once a quarter. During a quarterly challenge you can join a team with your coworkers for some friendly competition. They focus on a variety of topics, including sleeping well, financial fitness, mental wellness and spirituality. Challenges are steps-based (like above, you can estimate your steps) and as you move through the “race” you’ll have the opportunity to learn a new recipe, watch an informative video, or even view a reflection. Like the rest of the program, you can participate at any level of engagement you choose and you’ll still earn the points! Challenges will be offered in both English and Spanish.
We won’t see your information. Your individual personal well-being and health information, or results from the health assessment, are designed to help you gauge what goals you’d like to set for yourself. They will not be shared with us. As an international company, Virgin Pulse adheres to strict international security standards and is mandated in our contract not share your information with third parties. At the end of the year, our benefits team receives a report showing who has completed the program levels so that you can receive your health incentive. Additionally, you can view a three-page document on the privacy and strict security standards (link to Security FAQ)
We’re committed to providing your health incentive to help you pay for health care costs. As an organization that has made a commitment to care for the poor and vulnerable, we also remain committed to helping our own. We also acknowledge that there has been a lot of change around the health incentive over the years. Choose Well is not intended to pose a burden or barrier to earn your health incentive, but as an added benefit with resources to help guide you toward being the healthiest and happiest you can be. The key here is to take your time throughout the year, focusing on which resources from Choose Well you want to benefit from while earning points along the way.
Virgin Pulse is translatable in a variety of languages. As a Catholic health care and education ministry, we value diversity and have made an effort to select a well-being partner committed to improving accessibility to all language speakers. You can learn how to change the language settings on Virgin Pulse here. Please help your coworkers who prefer other languages besides English change their settings.
This may not answer everyone’s concerns, but the thing to remember is: all things new are only new for a short while. Our Human Resources department believes that many will see value in this program.
You can enroll today on the well-being tab of the HR portal at hrforcaregivers.org. Spouses and adult benefits recipients who are enrolled on your medical plan can create their own profile at www.mychoosewell.org.
