Discovery’s aim is to get you healthy and enhance your lifestyle. All aspects of Discovery have been designed with this in mind, so if you are not participating in their wellness programme you will end up being penalized. Premiums can go up more than planned, paybacks on the life cover are lower than expected and Discovery will end up being costly.
This year I want to get you to gold. If you are on gold for three years, you will be on platinum the following year. Every year you maintain the status you built up the previous year and you have that year to build up your points again. Discovery’s reasoning is that they want to know your health status annually and, by doing all the health checks regularly, you will have early detection if your health changes and your health will be at the top of your mind. I recently attended a talk by Margaret Hirsh, the founder and CEO of Hirsh’s Homestore, and she said: “Look after your health as it’s the one thing money cannot buy”. It has stuck with me because, when you are young you take your health for granted but, as you get older, you realise the importance of ongoing monitoring of your health.
At the start of the year you need to do the following:
1. Log into Discovery Health (www.discovery.co.za) and click on Vitality which will take you to your Vitality dashboard. This board will show you all your Vitality details. If you are not registered, register now as the process is quick and can be done on the website.
2. Whilst you are on the dashboard, do your Vitality Age (it’s under “Know your Health” on the dropdown menu at the top of the page) and earn 2000 points.
3. Visit your nearest Discovery pharmacy ASAP to do your Vitality Health Test. By doing the test you will get 25% payback on healthy foods from your preferred store (Pick n Pay or Woolworths) and 15% payback from the other. Your current preferred store will be on your Vitality dashboard. If you do not do this test you will only be able to get 15% and 10% payback respectively for healthy foods. The test costs R170 and is paid for by Discovery Health. You can earn up to 17 000 points for this test—34 000 if you and your spouse go. The points’ breakdown is as below.
4. If you have children, do their Health Review, which can also be done online. You can find the link on the dropdown menu: Vitality – Parenting – Kids Vitality Health Review. You will earn 2000 points per child by doing the test but, more importantly, you have to do the test every year in order for your children (aged between 2 and 18) to continue to watch movies for free before 7pm daily at any Ster-Kinekor.
If you do the above you can have as much as 25 000 points! If your spouse also does the Vitality Health Test and Vitality Age you can have as much as 44 000! That means, as a family, you will already be at bronze status. If you are single your points threshold is lower and you can also be on bronze.
[table]
Assessment,Vitality points,Goal range,Bonus points
Weight assessment,500,Body Mass Index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9 or BMI between 25 and 29.9 and a waist circumference of less than 102cm for males and less than 88cm for females,2 500
Blood pressure,500,Reading of 140mmHg/90mmHg or less,2 500
Glucose,500,Reading of less than 7.8 mmol/l 2,500
Cholesterol,500,Reading of less than 5 mmol/l,2 500
HIV, ,Having done the test,5 000
[/table]
I will be sending regular emails out during the curse of the year, so keep up and let’s get to gold!
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