UnitedHealthcare and Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), through its subsidiary Qualcomm Life, have integrated wearable devices from Samsung Electronics America Inc. and Garmin International, Inc., into UnitedHealthcare Motion™.
UnitedHealthcare Motion is a national wellness program that provides eligible plan participants access to activity trackers and enables them to earn more than $1,000 per year by meeting certain daily walking goals.
The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro and Gear Sport, and the Garmin vívosmart® 3, have been integrated and validated with Qualcomm Life’s 2net™ platform for medical-grade connectivity that features multiple safeguards to help keep data secure. UnitedHealthcare Motion participants who already own one of these devices may be able to use them with the program.
UnitedHealthcare Motion is available to employers with self-funded and fully insured health plans nationwide. The program enables employees to earn up to $4 per day in financial incentives based on achieving F.I.T. goals:
- Frequency: complete 500 steps within seven minutes six times per day, at least an hour apart;
- Intensity: complete 3,000 steps within 30 minutes; and
- Tenacity: complete 10,000 total steps each day.
The integrated activity trackers, which are available to plan participants at no additional charge or through upgrade options that enable people to purchase leading activity trackers at preferred prices, have been customized to enable users to see on their wrists how they are tracking against the program’s three daily F.I.T. goals. Research shows people who consistently achieve the F.I.T. goals tend to improve their health and reduce their medical expenses1.
All the activity trackers are available to people via a dedicated website that offers device options, including previously available activity trackers from Fitbit and Striiv.
Since UnitedHealthcare Motion’s inception, participants have collectively walked more than 130 billion steps and earned more than $19 million in rewards. Among eligible employees, 66 percent registered their devices, with more than two-thirds of those staying active with the program for more than one year.
“The enhancements to UnitedHealthcare Motion enable the program to offer companies and their employees more digital health and wellness resources that are personalized, connected and intuitive,” said Sam Ho, M.D., chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare. “We are expanding the portfolio of available devices to make UnitedHealthcare Motion more flexible, convenient and consumer friendly.”
Qualcomm Life, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, leverages its global connected health ecosystem and connectivity expertise to provide secure data transfer from the devices, to the Motion app and to UnitedHealthcare. Qualcomm Life also enables the BYOD model to allow the integration of more activity trackers into the 2net Platform and UnitedHealthcare Motion, providing participants with more choice.
“This program highlights the value of combing UnitedHealthcare’s pro-consumer benefit designs with Qualcomm Life’s expertise in providing seamless connectivity across a growing ecosystem of wearable devices to help people pursue their health and wellness goals,” said James Mault, M.D., F.A.C.S., senior vice president and chief medical officer of Qualcomm Life. “Studies have shown walking can be an effective way to help improve well-being and reduce medical costs, and we are seeing how UnitedHealthcare Motion helps people take charge of their health.”
Employers are expected to incorporate more than 13 million wearable and fitness tracking devices into their wellness programs by 2018, according to technology consultancy Endeavors Partners. A related study published in Science & Medicine showed people tend to overestimate how much exercise they get each week by more than 50 minutes, and they underestimate sedentary time by more than two hours, underscoring the importance of a wellness program like UnitedHealthcare Motion.
“Our motivation for implementing this program was simple: creating a happier and healthier workforce,” said Thomas Williams, director of finance of Wayne Densch, a Florida-based distribution company that adopted the program in 2016 and has seen a significant reduction in health care costs. “We recognize that wearable devices can help reduce our company’s overall health care costs and engage employees in our wellness program, enabling them to track their daily activity levels and improve their health and well-being.”
About Qualcomm Incorporated
Qualcomm’s technologies powered the smartphone revolution and connected billions of people. We pioneered 3G and 4G – and now, we are leading the way to 5G and a new era of intelligent, connected devices. Our products are revolutionizing industries including automotive, computing, IoT and healthcare, and are allowing millions of devices to connect with each other in ways never before imagined. Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, all of our engineering, research and development functions, and all of our products and services businesses, including our semiconductor business, QCT, and our mobile, automotive, computing, IoT and healthcare businesses. To learn more, visit Qualcomm’s website, blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.
Samsung: The Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro has been integrated into UnitedHealthcare Motion, providing eligible program participants a new device option as part of the national wellness program.
- Credit: Samsung Electronics America Inc.
Garmin: The Garmin vívosmart® 3 has been integrated into UnitedHealthcare Motion, providing eligible program participants a new device option as part of the national wellness program.
- Credit: Garmin International, Inc.
1 Savvy Sherpa. Dishman, R. et al. 2013. Physical Activity Epidemiology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
2 net is a product of Qualcomm Life, Inc. 2net is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Garmin and vívosmart are registered trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.
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