Apple Watch Owners With UnitedHealthcare Can Earn Awards for Being Active

[MacRumors]

Insurance provider UnitedHealthcare today announced the launch of UnitedHealthcare Rewards, a program that allows members to use their Apple Watches or iPhones to earn up to $1,000 per year by completing different health goals and activities.

UnitedHealthcare says that eligible members are able to earn rewards by using a smart watch, smartphone, or activity tracker, with the rewards able to be added to a prepaid debit card or deposited into a health savings account. Rewards can be earned by completing the following tasks:

• Achieve 5,000 steps or more each day.
• Complete 15 minutes or more of activity per day.
• Track sleep for 14 nights.
• Get a biometric screening.
• Complete a health survey.
• Select paperless billing.

Some of the payouts include $3.50 per week for walking 5000 steps a day, $10 for tracking 14 days of sleep, $7 a week for 30 active minutes of fitness each day, and $25 for completing a health survey.

Additional activities will be added to the rewards program throughout the year. UnitedHealthcare Rewards is available to select employers with fully insured plans at the start of their new plan year, and additional employers will gain access later in 2023. The program can be accessed through the UnitedHealthcare app or through the UnitedHealthcare website.

Article Link: Apple Watch Owners With UnitedHealthcare Can Earn Awards for Being Active

 

[infiniteentropy]

Terrifying precedent. That is all I have to say about that.

 

[boss.king]

It’s a trap.

 

[dannyyankou]

My employer is switching from United to BCBS in a couple months. I'll try to get my money's worth from this in that short time period lol.

 

[JoEw]

You’re a fool if you opt into this.

Insurance looks for every excuse to not pay out - they’re legally obligated to return value to shareholders. Please don’t voluntarily share your day to day activity data.

 

[vmachiel]

A boring dystopia

 

[v0lume4]

I’m going to sit on my butt if I darn well feel like it.

 

[MatthewUT44]

Terrifying precedent. That is all I have to say about that.

Its not bad at all. How dare a health insurance company promote a healthy lifestyle

 

[acctman]

Giving your health insurance access to your daily health is a bad idea.

 

[boss.king]

Its not bad at all. How dare a health insurance company promote a healthy lifestyle

You know that’s not why they’re doing this though, right?

 

[Marbles1]

Horrific precedent for any country where private healthcare is the norm. Even those with state funded universal healthcare should be wary of this.

We should be looking after the sick. We should also encourage people to live healthy lives. That's it.

It'll be blood tests next and taxes on certain measures of being overweight.

 

[MacWiz_007]

Horrific precedent for any country where private healthcare is the norm. Even those with state funded universal healthcare should be wary of this.

We should be looking after the sick. We should also encourage people to live healthy lives. That's it.

It'll be blood tests next and taxes on certain measures of being overweight.

It's also unfair that I workout six days a week and have a clean bill of health, yet I have to pay the same price for health insurance as the people I work with that are 200 pounds overweight and never workout. While I wouldn't sign up for this, at least they are offering folks a way to save some money/get something back for making healthy choices.

 

[michaelprescott]

"Rewards" today, are penalties tomorrow. We've all seen this before and know how insurance companies operate.

They'll coerce your employer into requiring employees to install the app on their personal phones, then require they purchase fitness tracking devices, and then require you run on a hamster wheel each day, and if you don't do your time, they'll penalize you, and they'll pitch it all with a creepy smile and toxic positivity. BUT, nothing you do will actually lower the cost of health insurance, which is so high it bars you from actual health care.

I think fitness tracking, personally, privately, for our own healthy objectives is amazing. Providing that data and influence to insurers is disturbing and a slippery slope that only gets worse.

 

[_Spinn_]

This kind of stuff is just creepy. Just another way for them to invade your privacy and data mine you.

 

[wallinbl]

You’re a fool if you opt into this.

Insurance looks for every excuse to not pay out - they’re legally obligated to return value to shareholders. Please don’t voluntarily share your day to day activity data.

Paranoid much?

Keeping you healthy and having healthy habits is far and away the biggest way to keep claim payments down. And, they're legally obligated to pay out the same share of premiums due to the ACA.

Aside from the fact that none of the information coming out of the watch or the UHC app would trip any of the plan guidelines for coverage.

 

[dragoon2745]

My reaction was this is a good thing but I'm glad I'm reading the comments now.

 

[bsbeamer]

Dangerous trend for employer provided healthcare. Not hard to imagine this being required to avoid premium surcharges in the future. With the state of healthcare and health insurance in the USA, doubtful any new consumer protection laws will be passed to regulate, prevent abuse, or prevent companies from using this data to determine what they pay for.

 

[ppjones]

Horrific precedent for any country where private healthcare is the norm. Even those with state funded universal healthcare should be wary of this.

We should be looking after the sick. We should also encourage people to live healthy lives. That's it.

It'll be blood tests next and taxes on certain measures of being overweight.

Look up the Metabo Law in Japan which is an interesting example

 

[Ash Pole]

Rewards for sexual activity tracking will begin in early 2024.
Extra rewards earned for those that link to Facebook.

 

[MallardDuck]

Just what I want. An insurance company monitoring my behavior. No thanks.

 

[jwernz15]

It's also unfair that I workout six days a week and have a clean bill of health, yet I have to pay the same price for health insurance as the people I work with that are 200 pounds overweight and never workout. While I wouldn't sign up for this, at least they are offering folks a way to save some money/get something back for making healthy choices.

So health is only something that’s visual? How do you know anyone overweight isn’t ALSO getting their exercise in? Have you heard that overweight people can still have a clean bill of health?

Speaking of a terrifying precedent, paying for health based on some persons ideal of health. Pass.

 

[MacWiz_007]

So health is only something that’s visual? How do you know anyone overweight isn’t ALSO getting their exercise in? Have you heard that overweight people can still have a clean bill of health?

Speaking of a terrifying precedent, paying for health based on some persons ideal of health. Pass.

When did I say health was visual? I didn't. My point stands.

 

[sw1tcher]

Terrifying precedent. That is all I have to say about that.

I get why the following could be bad

- Track sleep for 14 nights.
- Get a biometric screening.
- Complete a health survey.

but why is incentivizing people to do some healthy activities (5,000 steps or more each day, complete 15 minutes or more of activity per day) a terrifying precedent when it can help people become healthier?

 

[StyxMaker]

I have been involved in several multi year health/medical studies. Some of them get information about my activity levels and sleep habits from Apple Health. I have Medicare Advantage, the HMO version of Medicare. They cannot change what I’m charged for health care independently no matter my fitness level.

Medical progress is impossible if no one is willing to participate.

 

[deeddawg]

So health is only something that’s visual? How do you know anyone overweight isn’t ALSO getting their exercise in?

Isn't that where the steps/activity tracking comes in?

Have you heard that overweight people can still have a clean bill of health?

Speaking of a terrifying precedent, paying for health based on some persons ideal of health. Pass.

Define "clean bill of health" in terms which don't involve "some persons ideal of health"... i.e. who is giving that clean bill of health and what particular objective criteria are they using?