The @HealthPass Tweetup

DISCLAIMER: I am currently employed by a subsidiary of the Hawaii Medical Service Association, but these thoughts are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer or its parent company.

HealthPass (@HealthPass) is a benefit for most of HMSA's commercial plan members (click here to find out more). This past Wednesday, we hosted our first tweetup in conjunction with our 20th anniversary celebration. Though it did not have the glitz and glamor of the Nonstop Honolulu (@nonstophonolulu) launch, it definitely had a charm of its own. More importantly, there was a genuine sense of community prevailing in the room that night. Everyone understood that whether you have HMSA coverage or not, we share an important commonality: we all call Hawaii our home. It became apparent to me that the best way to keep HMSA members healthy, is to keep all of Hawaii healthy. It's an ambitious goal, but one that must be met if we are to have any hope of controlling the skyrocketing cost of health care. These changes will not happen in one day and certainly not in a single tweetup, but the conversations that evoke change have already started to take place. For example, after Renee (@surfchik4jesus) sent this tweet about her results, an entire conversation about diabetes ensued on Twitter. The next day, Sara Kata (@sarakata) blogged about "The Cholesterol Ninja" on Posterous. It was followed a day later by Rick Nakama's (@ricknakama) Bangga Bangga "Really Spicy Poke Bowl" post. The common thread? A heightened awareness of their health status brought on by information gleaned at the tweetup.

If you weren't able to attend the event, be sure to check out Ricky Li's (@rickyli99) gallery on Facebook. He took some great pics and really captured the essence of the evening.

Neenz Faleafine (@NEENZ) and her kids exploring the salt content in various foods.


Tweeps Ryan Ozawa (@hawaii), Garry (@funhiguy), Dan Seto (@danseto) and Joannie Pan (@trulyjoannies) learning functional exercises from Rodney, a health educator.


Melissa Chang (@melissa808), Don Aweau (@aweau), Jeff Kang (@jeffkang) and Linda (@alohagadgetgal) catching up with Noe Mediola (@noe808) and Neenz.

HealthPass Appointment

For those of you who aren't familiar with HealthPass, it is an annual benefit for HMSA members. There are three components to HealthPass: a health risk assessment (that evaluates your health behaviors and lifestyle choices); biometric measurements, which include height, weight, body mass index, blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, waist circumference, and body fat percentage; and fianlly, a Health Consultant will have a comprehensive discussion with you on the results. On Thursday, I went for the biometric part of the appointment. The first image is the waiting room in the Kaimuki HealthPass center. They have a nice little display of interesting facts. My favorite being a model of 5 pounds of fat. The next image is the blood pressure machine then you see my finger being poked. The Medical Assistant does this to get a small sample for the machine in the next picture, which measures glucose and cholesterol levels. The final image is me standing on something called a Tanita scale. It takes your weight and measures your body fat percentage. Overall, the experience was great. As Benjamin Franklin once said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If we really want to see changes to health care in this country, it will start with taking preventive measures such as these. If you have any questions or would like to schedule your HealthPass appointment, call (808) 948-6456 on Oahu or 1 (800) 525-6548 on the neighbor islands. Website