Unable to find Health data in new phone

the activities history/awards earned doesn't load on new phone or when watch is paired to new phone. Can this only be done via an actual backup? I did the bluetooth install on the new phone versus a restore from back up.

You should be able to go to Settings><your name>iCloud>then scroll down and turn on the switch next to Health. If you had that on in your old phone, it should download your Health data from iCloud to the new device, so long as you are connected to wi-fi.

Are you referring to the Quick Start? You mention that the old phone was lost, how were you able to do that? Again, if you were syncing Health data in iCloud, it should be there when you turn on Health in iCloud. However, if you were not syncing Health with iCloud, then you would have to restore a backup to get your Health data back.