Trying something else health related

[jenett]

I got a letter in late March about a health coaching service my health insurance (Medica) is offering as a benefit. I believe you currently need to either show up on their radar in some way, or be referred by your doctor. (In my case, I'm not sure what triggered it: my bets are either the recent health stuff or my weight, since the asthma and migraines are under very good control and haven't cost my current health insurance money since I started with them 9 years ago except for the inhaler prescription and one round of inhaled steroids from my primary care doc for an acute fit.)

Now, I have a feeling I've already touched on most of the stuff they're likely to suggest, but there's always a possibility I haven't. Plus, since I've been saying for years that helpful health care coverage would include this kind of thing, I sort of feel obliged to give it a fair try. There's a bunch of stuff where if they have resources, I'd be glad to look at them (managing asthma and non-swimming exercise better, healthy food recipes and ideas for one person living alone with low spoons, etc.)

Also, I figure there may be spots where stuff I say will help them help other people, which improves the world, and is a something I can do without putting my own well-being on shaky ground. (Providing infomation is a comforting thing for me, generally. Even when it's about subject I've got very fierce opinions about, like whether being overweight is, in and of itself, the dire thing, or whether it's other things going on in the body that lead to weight gain that's actually the dire bit for some people.)

The coaching is done via the phone - a 20 minute call either every other week or once a month. It's totally opt-in, and you can opt-out at any time, or do it for a few months, and come back in a while when something new comes up you need help with, and it's very user-driven, so it's not like they pick the stuff you need to work on. And totally free to the user, and they send you a bunch of info and ideas, and apparently, sometimes stuff. (Pill boxes, pedometers are both mentioned in the links I found about the earlier trials they did.)

They've seen pretty substantial health care savings (in terms of fewer ER visits and other high-expense things) from the earlier trial rounds of this, and my suspicion is that they're now branching out into people who have chronic issues who will have fewer long-term needs with better management and support beyond what doctors can reliably offer. The documentation is pretty careful about the privacy issues and the "user-guided program, not externally guided" (And also, it's not like the stuff I'm currently asking about isn't already in my health records.)

More reports as I get further into this - they're sending a packet of further info in the mail (which I guess I'll get sometime next week).

I called this morning, and have an initial discussion scheduled for the 19th after work. One of the things I'll specifically discuss then is the "Not interested in any kind of focus on weight-loss, because that gets me into very non-productive head space. Also, currently bewildered metabolism" but from the general conversation I had with the coach when I called in today, I suspect that won't be a huge issue.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Excellent! I'm totally with you on the "theoretically good idea" and congratulate you on your willingness to offer yourself up as teaching material (or as Amanda at Ballastexistenz memorably puts it, "self-narrating zoo exhibit.")

However, as a certified chlorine junkie I must testify that there is no better exercise than swimming!

[jenett]

I love my swimming, I do!

But it'd be sort of nice to have some variation sometimes, or a "Ok, it's a really gorgeous day, how *do* I plan to go out walking when I'm not sure how far I'm going to get and need to get back to the car at the end."

I like "Self-narrating zoo exhibit" a lot. Because it helps the world if someone is willing to be, and this particular variant doesn't take a lot out of me.

[walk_of_the_fallen]

Our insurer has this sort of thing, too. Very non-useful. Typical convo:

"Hello Mrs T. Now, you have asthma. Do you use your antihistamines daily and take any steroidal inhalers?"

Me: "No, antihistamines give me restless leg syndrome and I don't like steroids because I worry about bone density issues."

"Oh. Well. Um. You don't have pets, tho' right?"

Me: "Yes, I have pet ferrets, I am not allergic to them so what does that have to do with it?"

"Oh, well, well...you don't sleep on feather pillows do you?"

Me: "Yes, I do. I actually react poorly to foam and synthetic pillows, I am NOT allergic to feathers---but am developing a latex issue, so synthetic pillows are not good for me."

"Oh, well. You eat lots of fruits and vegetables, five a day, haha, right?"


Me: "Well, I try. I am allergic to most of the common fruits and several vegetables."

"Oh, really? Well, why do you think that?"

Me: Because I tested allergic and sometimes have an asthma attack upon eating some of them."

"ohhhh....(voice declining) wellll, you have a nice day now."

Me: after hanging up "Yeah, run along now.

[jenett]

The initial conversation was promising enough that it wasn't going to go that way - their info says they're basically question based, of letting the end-user ask questions or identify what they'd like to focus on, and then going from there.

Like I said: been griping that there ought to be something like this for years, so giving them a fair shot seems like the thing to do, and it might actually be significantly useful.

I'll post a writeup of the initial intake process when we get there in a week.

[walk_of_the_fallen]

Let's hope! Our's allegedly has this question based part as well, but the hired phone answering sorts simply don't have anything but very simple answers. For instance, with my food allergies, I am always scrambling for nutrition answers---what I got instead from them was "Oh, don't eat THAT; at your age you shouldn't have that much fat/chloresterol/whatever." (the comment from my saying I had eggs for breakfast) So even pointing out how limited my diet was didn't seem to move them much beyond the "shalt nots."

I am so hoping somewhere else a less superficial form of this exists!

[crystalpyramid]

Cool! That seems at worst interesting and at best useful. I'm looking forward to future updates. (-:

(Thanks for the independent school posts, by the way. I'm not commenting because I don't know what to add, but I've really enjoyed reading them. Your school does some things differently from other places I've been a student or teacher, but I really have no idea what's typical.)

[jenett]

Yay! Glad you're enjoying them! One thing I think is true about independent schools is that there's nothing necessarily in common except "We have students. We do our best to teach them lots and lots of things."

And on the coaching - yeah, pretty much where I am. It might be helpful, it's a low opportunity cost to try it out, and if it doesn't work out, I opt out.