Health Break: What is Prescription for Wellness and how does it work?

Camille: Welcome to Health Break by UPMC Health Plan, your quick guide to health, wellness, and how to make the most of your health insurance plan. I’m your host, Dr. Camille Clarke-Smith. I help to oversee the quality of the plans and programs we offer at UPMC Health Plan.

Angelo: And I’m your co-host, Angelo Bartic. I’m a health coach who works with our members on making healthy lifestyle habits and setting goals. This is your…Health Break.

In this episode, we’re talking with Tish Rohan about the Prescription for Wellness program, how to get a Prescription for Wellness, and what it can do for your health. Tish, thank you for spending some time with us today.

Tish: Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Angelo.

Angelo: I’m really excited to have you here today because I’ve seen the positive impact it has on our members. Can you tell our members, what is Prescription for Wellness and how does it work?

Tish: Sure! So Prescription for Wellness is a prescription you get from your provider to connect with services at UPMC Health Plan. It is a way to connect with our health coaches and care managers and deliver services in areas like lifestyle, physical health, and social and emotional health. If you don’t get a prescription, you can also self-refer to this program and you’ll reach our team either way.

Angelo: You mentioned health coaches and care managers. Can you explain the difference to our listeners?

Tish: When you work with a health coach or a care manager, first of all, you don’t need to know the difference when you get to us. We’ll help you get to the right team and the right person. A care manager is really someone who is helping you with your overall clinical needs, coordinating care with you and your provider, potentially helping you with managing your medications. And they even help you if you’ve had a hospital stay or an ED (emergency department) visit and help you get started when you get home and make sure that you have the care you need. They’re really, you know, a great resource for you to just make sure you’re staying healthy. Health coaches on the other hand work collaboratively with the care managers and they are a team of experts that helps you set goals, helps you stick to those goals, and helps you overcome barriers that might get in the way. We know that it’s tough to make behavior changes and this team is really there to support you in doing exactly that. These teams are made up of a variety of experts. It might be a nurse, you might be working with an exercise science specialist, someone with a public health background, counselors, registered dieticians—it just depends on your needs.

Angelo: So it sounds like our members are covered with whatever their needs are. Can you tell me a little bit about how a member would enroll or get started?

Tish: Yeah, I sure can. So first of all, one of the great things about this is this is part of your benefit plan as a UPMC Health Plan member. So when you get this prescription, there’s no cost to you, but the best way to get in touch with us and to connect with our services is talk with your providers. So if you have an upcoming visit, make sure once you work with your provider to come up with some goals and a plan for managing your health, ask them about getting a Prescription for Wellness and ask them to connect you with UPMC Health Plan for services. If you get a prescription from your doctor, be sure to check your text messages because if we have your cell phone number on file, we’re gonna send you a text message. And in that text message, you’re gonna find a variety of ways to connect with us.

And you get to choose. You get to select the preference that’s most appealing to you. So if it makes sense for you to give us a call, there’s a phone number there for you to call us. But if you prefer to schedule a virtual visit, a video visit with us, you’ll have a link to a mobile app called [UPMC] AnywhereCare, and you can go right there and connect with us live or schedule an appointment same day or future visit with our health navigators to get started. And another great way is through our mobile app called RxWell. And this is something you can get started with right away. It’s on demand. You download the mobile app, you answer a few questions, and you use your member ID to create an account and you’ll be directly connected with one of our digital health coaches that will help you work on your goals and get started on changing some behaviors and getting healthy.

Angelo: So Prescription for Wellness is a free, easy to access benefit for our members. Is it available for children too?

Tish: It is. Prescription for Wellness is available to anybody who is a UPMC Health Plan member. So all ages can access these services and we have some great resources and great programs that are especially designed for kids, and kids and families. One of the programs I’d love to highlight is our Healthy Families program. It’s a great example of an opportunity to work with our team of health coaches to make healthy changes in your family. We know that it’s really difficult to find time with a family, especially a busy family, to talk about health. And I also know as a parent myself, it’s really hard to have conversations about health and making changes and make them positive. Our health coaches are really skilled at that and can help you do that with your family and help you even come up with some strategies of how to fit it in with a really busy lifestyle.

The Healthy Families program is available a variety of ways. You can do it telephonically, you can do it virtually, but I’m really excited to say that we now have it on our mobile app RxWell. And so if you download the app and you wanna enroll in that Healthy Families program, you can do it in between soccer practice, you can do it in the evenings, wherever you can find 10 minutes to work on a technique. There’s so many fun activities in there that you can do together as a family. I will say the program is most appropriate for families with kids that are around the ages of 6 to 12. So keep that in mind, but that’s OK. We have lots of other programs that are available for kids and families outside that range. All of our lifestyle health coaching programs are available to all ages.

And we have other resources such as behavioral health. If you’re, you know, trying to manage your anxiety or depression or another behavioral health need, we have a whole team of behavioral health experts that can help you who are licensed professionals. We have our care management team, as I mentioned, that’s also available to all ages, kids and adults. And we even have social work services that if you just need some help, things like transportation needs or just need a little bit of help overall with things in your family our social work team’s available to support you as well. So basically, anything you’re trying to work on related to your health, you can connect with us, talk to your provider, or give us a call and we’ll help you get started.

Angelo: Tish, thank you again for taking a Health Break with us and discussing the Prescription for Wellness program.

Tish: Thank you so much for having me today. This is just a wonderful program and I’m really excited to talk about it.

Angelo: Find show notes and more information at upmchealthplan.com/podcast. Join us as we continue exploring health, wellness, and how to make the most of your health insurance plan in the next episode of Health Break.

This podcast is for informational and educational purposes. It is not medical care or advice. Individuals in need of medical care should consult their personal care provider. Views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of UPMC Health Plan and its employees.