Holly Turner, Baptist Memphis’ human resources manager, won a $500 prize as part of HumanaVitality’s Vitality Jackpot.
All HumanaVitality® members are automatically entered into a monthly drawing to win prizes through the Vitality Jackpot™. Five thousand winners are chosen every month, and the prizes awarded are determined by each member’s Vitality Status™ at the time of the drawing. The higher your Vitality Status, the greater the prize value. Turner has achieved Platinum status – the highest possible – and was eligible to win a prize worth up to $500. She chose a camera.
Read her HumanaVitality story below.
Year One: The first year we had HumanaVitality, I would say I “dipped my toes in.” I claimed as many points as I could for things my family and I would have done anyway. In the Prevention and Vitality Kids categories, I made sure to submit claims for our health screenings, flu shots, and dental and vision exams. In addition, I sought out additional opportunities to earn points that required only a small amount of time and effort and no cost. This included the online health assessments, email address confirmation, monthly web activity, accepting online statements, calculators under the Education category, and the Vitality Check under the Prevention category. Finally, I made sure to claim points for documented activities my husband was already doing. This included blood donations under the Healthy Living category, and athletic events such as triathlons and 5K races under the Fitness category. I even joined him in the Baptist Memphis Well4Me 5K that year. That was an easy 250 points for each of us! (You don’t have to win. You don’t even have to run. You just have to finish it!)
Even with all the above, during my first year with HumanaVitality, the Fitness category remained an untapped source of points for me. Many employees utilize our Baptist Memphis Wellness Center or other gyms that partner with HumanaVitality. In those situations, all the employee has to do is connect his/her HumanaVitality account to his/her membership with the partner facility, and 15 Vitality points are awarded automatically when he/she swipes in to the facility to exercise. My personal preference is to exercise at home using workout videos. So despite the fact that I truly was exercising consistently during Year One, I was not earning points for my activities. I decided not to let that be the case with Year Two.
Year Two: Because I was consistent with claiming points for all my family’s other healthy activities during Year One, I earned enough Vitality Bucks to redeem a Polar heart rate monitor from the Vitality Mall at no cost to me! I created a Polar account, connected it to my HumanaVitality account, and since that time I have been able to take full advantage of my earning potential as far as Vitality Points go. I simply wear the heart rate monitor when I work out, sync my device to my Polar account every few days, and Polar sends my workout data to my HumanaVitality account. Now I, too, am earning 15 Vitality points for my workouts, right in my own home! To earn points using a heart rate monitor, the requirement is to exercise at an average of 60 percent or more of your maximum heart rate for a minimum of 30 minutes in a single workout session. Your maximum heart rate is calculated by subtracting your age from 220. (A compatible chest strap transmitter must be worn during a workout for the heart rate data to be captured.) In addition to being able to earn 15 points per day for verified workouts, you also earn 15 bonus points for your first workout of each week. If you work out five times or more in a single week, then you get 40 more points on top of that!
Aside from earning Vitality Points, I have seen great benefit from exercising with a heart rate monitor. Being able to see my heart rate in real time, as well as the elapsed time, gives me extra motivation to push myself, when I otherwise might have been tempted to just “go through the motions” or stop when I felt like I had “done enough.” I now have a goal to work toward with each workout, and it has made a huge difference in my mindset.
My family has not stopped there, though. In reality, we were still leaving points on the table in Year Two. While I was working hard to earn my 15 points a day, my husband, Daniel, was right there with me, but without his own heart rate monitor! We made it our goal to reach Platinum Vitality status by the end of 2014 so we could have the highest possible discount in the Vitality Mall. We made it to that goal, and next we used our Vitality Bucks to redeem a Garmin training watch for him. Not only is this a heart rate monitor he can use when we exercise together at home, it just happens to be ideal for swimming, which is Daniel’s favorite way to exercise. Now we are both earning those fitness points, and we are enjoying seeing the number of points needed to maintain our Platinum status get lower and lower.
I love to tell employees about the HumanaVitality program. We all know that even a small increase in our daily activity level can lead to big improvements in our health and wellness. The benefits of taking care of our bodies through exercise and proper nutrition cannot be understated. With that being said, of course it’s always nice to have an added incentive! There are so many great prizes in the Vitality Mall, from workout gear such as Fitbits, bicycles, and Under Armour clothing, to Target, Macy’s and Amazon gift cards, to a wide variety of iPads and iPods! It is so easy to claim points for the healthy activities you are already participating in, and anyone who is not using this program is missing out on the opportunity to earn some really great rewards. My Year One is proof of that.
With the discount on health insurance premiums that will be available next year based on your Vitality Status, if you have not gotten started with HumanaVitality, now is the time! Are you already participating in Zumba at your church? Line dancing with your friends at the community center? Do you love to go on walks with your family? A Humana pedometer is a great tool you can use to start earning points! Do you work out at a gym that is not already a Humana Partner? First log in to your Vitality account and submit the information about that facility to Humana, then consider getting a simple heart rate monitor to start earning right away!
As Baptist team members, we are fortunate to have great benefits, and HumanaVitality is one of those. I encourage all Baptist health plan members who are not already using HumanaVitality to log in to HumanaVitality, complete a health assessment, and start earning points today!