GoodHealth is a comprehensive, wellness/health education program - designed specifically for MPS employees, to provide:

• Information on the status of your health and on ways you can live a healthier life.
• Voluntary program options to help you achieve your health goals.
• Financial incentives to reward you for the healthy steps you take.

There are three steps to take each year:

1. Fill out a personal health assessment (PHA) - a questionaire that takes about 20 minutes to complete online or on paper.
2. Consider your voluntary program options, based on your results.
3. Complete the program(s) of your choice.

Your most important benefit is better health. The information you receive and the programs you complete will help you live healthier.

In addition, there are financial incentives for participating.

Initially, there will be two guaranteed financial incentives:

1. If you, and your spouse if married, complete the personal health assessment, you will not pay the annual $200 GoodHealth premium contributions.
2. If you complete the voluntary program option(s) you select during the introductory period of the program - from July 1, 2007 through December 15, 2008 - you will receive a $200 tax-free payment to your health reimbursement account (HRA).

There are more financial incentives which will be explained on our Web site and in our newsletter in the future.

As part of the new GoodHealth program, the MTEA and the School Board have agreed to an annual $200 premium contribution for active employees who are covered by either the Aetna (PPO) or UnitedHealthcare (HMO) health plan.

MTEA-represented employees will have $100 deducted from their second paycheck in February and another $100 deducted from their second paycheck in March. These deductions will not be taken if you (and your spouse if married) complete a personal health assessment by December 15.

The annual $200 GoodHealth premium contribution will continue each year, and you will never pay it if you and your spouse complete a PHA by December 15 each year.

We want this new program to work - to help our members and their families live healthier, and protect our members from the financial impact of rising health care costs, and maintain high-quality health insurance benefits for our members.

The research on health and productivity management programs shows that an extremely high percentage of employees - 95% or better - must complete the personal health assessment for any program to succeed.

The research also shows that certain employees - primarily those who avoid dealing with personal health issues - will not complete the annual PHA unless there is a substantial financial penalty - $200 or more. (MPS could not afford to make $200 payments.)

A health reimbursement account (HRA) is an individual employee account regulated by the IRS, which may be spent only for medical expenses. Only the employer may deposit funds in an HRA, and all deposits are tax-free. HRA medical expenses include:

• payments to a doctor, clinic, lab, or hospital for deductibles, copays, co-insurance;
• over-the-counter and prescription drugs;
• and other medical expenses defined by the IRS.

HRA funds not used in one year are rolled over to the next year, and can be accumulated for several years. For example, you can use HRA funds to pay for laser eye surgery.

No! There will be no changes in your negotiated health insurance benefits. GoodHealth is primarily an education program. By design, it's separate from the MPS health insurance plans.

A personal health assessment (PHA) is confidential survey which you (and your spouse) complete online or on paper. All PHAs include standard questions on personal health matters such as eating, drinking, smoking, exercise, stress, blood pressure, health conditions (your own and family history) weight, cholesterol, age, gender, pregnancy, driving habits, etc.

The purpose of a PHA is to provide you with information. Your confidential results will identify your conditions/risks and recommend specific programs to help you maintain and improve your health.

The GoodHealth PHA takes about 20 minutes to complete. Results are provided almost instantly when done online.

Yes. For now, this is the only method available to the Board to report your eligibility for the program and to receive verification of your completion of the PHA (for MPS incentive payments).

There are plans to replace this system early next year, so you can convert your Social Security ID to a unique ID. If you are not comfortable, you should request a paper PHA.

In you have a wireless Internet connection, make sure your connection is secure.

Our union, not the School Board, proposed health and productivity management (H&PM) in 2003. We initiated this approach because, long-term, it is the best way to maintain excellent health insurance benefits of the Aetna plan for our members, active and retired.

Since then, more and more employers have invested in H&PM programs to maintain health benefits for their employees.

In addition, our union has worked with MPS to develop a comprehensive program tailored to the needs of our members. As a result, we strongly believe this new program is the way to maintain excellent health care for our members, active and retired, now and in the future.

In 2003, we also saw H&PM as the way to stop the health insurance premium deductions that MPS was proposing for employees. Huge premium payments would have forced our lowest-paid members to drop the insurance they and their families need.

Through bargaining, we have maintained 100% Board payment of health insurance premiums. However, all four MTEA contracts now have a provision that employees will pay 2.5% of the Aetna premium if the Aetna premium rate increases by 17% in any one year.

We firmly believe that the best way to keep Aetna rate increases below the 17% trigger is to successfully implement this new program.

Depending on your health status, the new GoodHealth program offers a wide variety of programs - things you can do to improve your health. You will receive recommendations on the best programs for you, but your participation is completely voluntary.

These are examples of less intensive programs available online or through the mail including:

• Wellness activities, including 10 online, healthy living programs:
• smoke free
• healthier diet
• get in shape
• weight loss
• stress relief
• healthy heart
• healthy aging
• diabetes-fighting
• cancer-fighting
• "easy start"

• Mail-based lifestyle management programs, for those not at high risk, include:
• smoking cessation
• nutrition
• exercise
• back care
• managing weight, stress, cholesterol, or blood pressure.

• Here are some examples of program options that include coaching, by phone, from a nurse trained in specific program areas:
• Disease management - to help you deal with a chronic disease such as diabetes or asthma.
• Maternity management, a seven-month program to keep you and your baby healthy.
• Case management for cancer, heart disease, and other serious illnesses.

• Intensive programs for someone assessed to be at high risk including:
• smoking cessation
• nutrition
• exercise
• back care
• weight management
• stress managment
• cholesterol management
• blood pressure management.

Your participation in any of the GoodHealth programs will be kept in strict confidentiality.

Because confidentiality is absolutely necessary for the program to operate, the MTEA contract with the School Board provides:

• Employee/spouse responses to the personal health assessment will be submitted directly to the two outside firms under contract with MPS to administer the program. The private firms, CareWise and StayWell, were selected because of their expertise and experience managing H&PM programs nationally, including confidentiality concerns.
• Responses to the personal health assessment will be held in strictest confidence and will be accessible only to CareWise and StayWell - and only for the purpose of providing information and assistance to employees/spouses on health and wellness issues.
• CareWise and StayWell are prohibited from releasing any protected health information to any other entity, including MPS and MTEA, without the expressed written permission of the individual employee, retiree, or spouse.
• Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and Medco will not have access to any individual personal health assessment response information.

• Yes. The federal HIPAA law has substantially increased the standards for confidentiality of medical information. The risk of costly lawsuits is a strong reason confidentiality will be maintained.
• In addition, the two companies selected for this program must maintain their national reputations for securing personal health data for all of the H&PM programs they handle. Confidentiality is essential to their staying in business.