Apple and partners CVS Health Corp. and its Aetna business unit
unveiled a new app — Attain — for Aetna members' use with the Apple Watch,
touting it as a sophisticated tool to reward such healthy behaviors as getting
annual physicals, filling prescriptions and more.
"The possibility for how we can use these sorts of
technology is limited only by the imagination," said Alan Lotvin, M.D.,
CVS Health's executive vice president of transformation. He said the companies
were motivated by the idea of shifting health care, which is traditionally
institution-driven, to be individual-driven.
Under the customized incentives program — to become available
this spring to 250,000 to 300,000 Aetna plan members, to start — participants
will get 10 points for meeting a calorie goal, 100 points for participating in
a sleep challenge, 1,000 points for getting a flu shot, and so on, and the
Apple Watch will track the individual's progress toward weekly goals.
In 2016, Aetna gave free Apple Watches to about 50,000 of its
employees and began to develop a new health app. As now configured, Attain
combines an Aetna member's health history with Apple Watch activity to create
personalized goals, offering relevant tips and health challenges, and sending
customized notifications for what are termed "key health moments."
Citi analyst Ralph Giacobbe downplayed the Attain app's
uniqueness in a Jan. 29 note, noting the Apple/Aetna announcement "builds
on other incentive programs including [UnitedHealth Group's] Motion program
where members can essentially 'walk off' the cost of an Apple Watch."
From Health Plan Weekly
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