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Your Plan for Health, Wellness Program join forces under YP4H umbrella

Posted on | September 23, 2009 | 2,813 views |

After serving the university community for more than a decade, the services and programming of the Faculty and Staff Wellness Program will be merging under Your Plan for Health.

All the popular programming and services, such as the Lunch and Learn workshop series, biometric health screenings, flu shots and the annual Rally for Wellness! Health Fair now will be offered under the YP4H name to improve recognition and reinforce how these resources support the university’s four-year-old initiative. The staff and administrative functions of wellness programming won’t be changing.

“We were hearing a disconnect between what Your Plan for Health offers and what the Wellness Program offers and confusion about how those services complemented each other,” said Pam Doseck, director of benefits in the Office of Human Resources.

For instance, the biometric health screening, which allows faculty and staff to obtain their health numbers to complete their Personal Health Assessment (PHA), is conducted through the wellness program, but the PHA was part of the YP4H tool palette. Likewise, flu shots and Lunch & Learn workshops — offered by the wellness program — earned points in the Incentive Program administered by YP4H.

“Our goal is for faculty and staff to be able to find all their favorite wellness activities in one place under the Your Plan for Health umbrella,” Doseck said.

Gone, however, is the purple “W” so many people identified with the Wellness Program. To celebrate the merger, a transitional logo to commemorate the role the Wellness Program played in building YP4H will be in place for the next few quarters.

YP4H began in 2006 as a collaboration of Human Resources, the Ohio State Health Plan (formerly Managed Health Care Systems) and the OSU Medical Center. “It was just a matter of time before the foundation laid by the Wellness Program would be folded back in,” said Marianne Robinson, Wellness Program manager who has been credited with growing the program into a state-recognized initiative.

In 2005, the program won the Governor’s Central Region Healthy Ohioans Business Council Award, and in 2007, Robinson was honored with the university’s Distinguished Staff Award as a tribute to her workplace wellness advocacy.

“The founding mission of our Wellness Program has launched both an industry and national revolution on workplace wellness,” said Scott Streator, CEO and executive director of the Ohio State Health Plan, which provides the wellness services to the university. “What started out as a benefit for Ohio State employees many years ago has evolved into an initiative that has direct, favorable impact on the university’s health care bottom line.”

The branding transition of the Wellness Web site and programming will occur over the next few months. Continue to visit osuhealthplan.com/wellness for event scheduling and registration.

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