Two major health insurers, Cigna and Aetna, separately announced news Tuesday aimed at advancing telehealth and digital health.
Cigna, of Bloomfield, Connecticut, will expand its coverage of telemedicine and remote care in 2017 by adding American Well‘s Amwell service as a benefit. The benefit will be available to most Cigna members in employer-sponsored plans, as well as to certain individual health plans bought through private and public exchanges, the insurer said.
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This move gives another option to Cigna enrollees, who already can seek telemedicine services through MDLive and have insurance cover most or all of the cost. MDLive has been part of Cigna coverage since 2013.
Sunrise, Florida-based MDLive also is expanding its services for Cigna members. Those with coverage for mental health and substance-abuse treatment will be able to get therapy or medication management services by video beginning in January, the payer said, regardless of whether patients choose MDLive or American Well.
Both MDLive and American Well will be able to share telemedicine consultation notes with each participating Cigna member’s primary care physician, according to Robert Wijnhoven, telehealth lead for the insurance company.
Meanwhile, Aetna is making a big push into wellness tracking and care management by announcing that it would become the “first major healthcare company” to subsidize purchases of the Apple Watch. Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna also said it would supply free Apple Watches to its nearly 50,000 employees.
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This is part of a deal with Apple for Aetna to offer “several iOS-exclusive health initiatives,” including apps that run on the Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad. Aetna is working on apps for care management and wellness, medication and adherence, health plan enrollment and to integrate with Apple Wallet to allow members to pay medical bills from their mobile devices.
The subsidy program will be available to certain employer groups and individual members beginning with this fall’s open enrollment period. Open enrollment runs from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31 for purchasers of individual coverage, while the time frame varies for employer-sponsored plans.
The amount of the subsidy also will depend on the plan, but Aetna said it will allow those in employer groups to pay the balance of the cost of the Apple Watch through payroll deductions.
Both Cigna and Aetna happen to be involved in pending mergers: Aetna with Humana and Cigna with Anthem. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued to block both deals on antitrust grounds.
Also on Tuesday, virtual care provider HealthTap announced it would begin accepting health insurance for payment of online, text or phone patient visits with certain physicians. (Participating physicians set their own payment terms.)
HealthTap, of Palo Alto, California, handles eligibility checking and submits insurance claims on behalf of the doctors.
Photo: Apple
