UnitedHealthcare and Qualcomm Life have both invested in wearables companies and/or companies that support employer wellness such as Audax Health and Fitbit. Now it looks like the parent companies are taking some of the insights from those investments and applying them to a series of program offerings using wearables at the center of a financial incentive program in employer wellness.
UnitedHealthcare Motion is the first of what the companies say will be a series of program collaborations in connected health, according to a joint statement from Qualcomm and UnitedHealth.
The program is aimed at UnitedHealthcare members enrolled in high-deductible health plans. Employees and their covered spouses receive custom-designed wearable devices that track the number of steps users take. The UnitedHealthcare Motion devices compile the total number, frequency and intensity of the steps taken. The goal is to provide a more accurate and comprehensive summary of the user’s daily activity.
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The data is sent to a companion app using Qualcomm Life’s 2net Mobile connectivity platform. Employees can earn Health Reimbursement Account credits of up to $1,460 per year. The program will help employers earn premium savings depending on program participants’ combined results, a company statement said.
Initially, the wellness program and fitness trackers will be offered to UnitedHealth employers in 12 states with 101 to 300 employees with a fully insured health plan. The states include Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C. More states will be added later this year.
Employees enrolled in UHC Motion receive a custom designed Trio Tracker at no cost; the cost of the device is built into the premium paid by the employer. This is a custom proprietary tracker.
To earn financial incentives, the device tracks three areas that research has shown correlate with improved health outcomes, according to a spokeswoman from Qualcomm:
1. Frequency (six times per day for at least five minutes) earns people $1.50 per day.
2. Intensity (3000 steps in 30 minutes) earns people $1.25 per day.
3. Tenacity (10,000 total steps) earns $1.25 per day.
Looking ahead, other collaborations will support UnitedHealthcare programs with connected medical devices and home diagnostic tests using Qualcomm Life’s 2net Platform for medical-grade connectivity, the statement said.
It’s an interesting move by two substantial companies to take on this kind of partnership and makes one wonder whether additional collaborations will focus on chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure or diabetes.
Although employer wellness programs have been championed for seeking to improve the overall health of employees (and helping productivity) and even flagging previously undiagnosed chronic conditions, they have also come in for criticism. They have been accused of favoring physically fit employees, not providing enough encouragement and not actually providing real savings for employers.
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