Dive Brief:
- UnitedHealthcare is piloting an iPhone app that provides financial incentive for members to live a healthier lifestyle.
- The app, called Reward Me, provides rewards for activities in four categories: healthy eating, relaxation, healthy activity and life style. Rewards vary by market, but include discounts on things like workout apparel (Puma), yoga classes and healthy food chains (Quiznos or Jamba Juice).
- The tool is partially intended to introduce members to UnitedHealthcare's pricing and mobile payment app, Health4Me, with which it is integrated.
Dive Insight:
This isn't the only app out there paying for healthy living: Pact Health—the first company to start as a health app and then become a health plan—offers a deal where members can gain or lose $5 from their deductible for each workout they make or miss, as determined via smartphone GPS or fitness monitoring device.
But given that the Health4Me app has already boosted its users by 43% as a result of the Reward Me integration within the two pilot markets, it looks like this was just as much of a consumer engagement and a marketing strategy as it was a wellness one.
The pilot will continue adding new markets through 2015, with a national roll-out expected by early 2016 (at which point an Android app will be developed).
Want to read more? You may enjoy this story on 3 off-the-wall things insurers are doing to increase engagement.