Get started on your individual action plan, if you haven’t already

If you completed your wellness assessment, you are eligible to complete an individual action plan by July 1 to earn gold for your 2012 out-of-pocket medical expenses. The deadline for completing the wellness assessment has been extended to March 4 so you still have time to take it. Go to www.kchealthyincentives.com.

To earn gold for next year, you can now choose one of four individual action plans, which you’ll find after you click on the “Get Started” button on your home page (registration for a fifth individual action plan, the Live Well Challenge, ends on Feb. 2):

• The much improved WebMD online individual action plan with more choices and more flexibility
• Free & Clear Quit for Life® tobacco cessation, which requires five coaching calls (you will only see this option if you indicated on your wellness assessment that you are a regular user of tobacco)
• Weight Watchers at Work®, which is for employees only and requires you to attend 10 sessions at county worksites
• A “No Thanks” option, reminding you that you will remain silver if you don’t complete an individual action plan by July 1, 2011.

If you want to know more about the requirements of any option, click the “Tell me more” link next to the option you’re interested in. Then, make your selection and click on the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page. After you make your selection, you will be taken to a page where you can begin your individual action plan.

As a reminder, coaching by itself is not an individual action plan, but it can be used by anyone who would like free, personal health coaching or feels the need for extra support in completing an individual action plan. If you would like to discuss your personal wellness assessment report with a health coach or get assistance in completing an individual action plan, call WebMD at 1-866-584-6813.

WebMD online individual action plan

If you select the WebMD online individual action plan, you will be taken to the Healthy Incentives Road to Gold Rewards Page where you will find many more options and much more flexibility in completing your activities to meet the requirements for gold. You will also find all of the instructions for successfully completing an online individual action plan on that page—if you don’t understand the instructions, call Benefits, Payroll and Retirement Operations at 206-684-1556 or e-mail kc.benefits@kingcounty.gov.

In short, you earn gold by recording 3 activities a week—your weekly goal—for 10 weeks using any combination of the following options, beginning your first week of activity no later than Apr. 23 and completing it no later than July 1, 2011:

• Make an entry in a planner. You may use one planner or any combination of planners to make entries to meet your weekly goal of three activities. Planners include stress management, walking, exercise and meal planners.
• Complete a phase of readings in one of the Lifestyle Improvement Programs—weight management, nutrition, exercise and stress management. Complete all seven steps and the quiz in one phase of readings to receive credit for one of the three activities you need to reach your weekly goal.
• Make an entry in a tracker. Health trackers help you track specific personal health measures and activities such as blood pressure, cholesterol and resting heart rate. Each entry counts as one of the three activities you need to reach your weekly goal.
• Read a King County Health Matters newsletter article. Each month, you can read one article from the Health Matters newsletter as credit for one of the three activities you need to meet your weekly goal. After you have read an article, you cannot earn additional points for reading the same article.
• Create a personal health record. Create a personal health record so all of the information you need to manage your health is in one place. Each entry you make counts as one of the three activities you need to reach your weekly goal. When you create your personal health record, you will find that it conveniently contains information you already entered in your wellness assessment. 

Each week, you can choose from any of the activities to meet your weekly goal. For example, one week you might make 2 planner entries and make one tracker entry, and the second week you might make three entries in your personal health record, and so on.

After you’ve completed your three entries for the week, click on the “Rewards (check status)” link at the top of the page to return to your updated Healthy Incentives Road to Gold Rewards Page.  At your Rewards page, you will be able to see a record of your three entries with the dates on which you recorded them. At noon on Tuesday the following week, you can verify whether you successfully met the weekly goal for that week on your Rewards page. After you’ve successfully completed your 10th week of activity, you can confirm that you’ve earned gold by logging in to your home page at noon the following Tuesday.

For tips in using the WebMD online individual action plan, click here.

Changing your individual action plan

Anytime you want to change your individual action plan, click on the “Rewards (check status)” link at the top of any page to return to your Healthy Incentives Road to Gold Rewards Page. On that page, click on the “Change my Individual Action Plan” link located just above “Actions Available.”

If you do change to another individual action plan, be sure you have enough time to complete it before July 1, 2011. When you switch to another individual action plan, you are starting all over and will not receive credit for activities you’ve completed for your previous individual action plan.

Earning your family color

If you and your spouse or domestic partner are both covered under a County medical plan, you each need to complete the wellness assessment by Jan. 31, 2011, and you each need to complete an individual action plan by July 1, 2011, to earn gold for your family. If one of you only completes the wellness assessment, your family color will be silver. If one of you does not complete the wellness assessment, your family color will be bronze.

Getting help

Contact WebMD at 1-866-584-6813 (be sure to use the “1” when dialing this number) for:

• Registration or log-in assistance
• Retrieving your username and password
• Help with your WebMD individual action plan
• Requesting a paper individual action plan

Contact Benefits, Payroll and Retirement Operations at 206-684-1556 or kc.benefits@kingcounty.gov for:

• Requesting a paper wellness assessment
• Requesting your Healthy Incentives ID (you can also find your Healthy Incentives ID under Self Service/My Benefits in your PeopleSoft account)
• Help with the Live Well Challenge, Weight Watchers at Work® or Free & Clear Quit For Life®
• Help in understanding Healthy Incentives^SM program requirements