HumanaVitality, the health insurer's employee wellness program that uses rewards and social features to encourage healthy behavior change, has released some data based on a two-year study of 16,000 employees.
Humana looked at data from individuals who were users of HumanaVitality, and compared their claims data to their engagement with the program. They found that users who were unengaged with...
Optum, a division of the UnitedHealth Group, has purchased a majority stake in Audax Health Solutions in a deal "which included cash, options, preferred stock, and significant working capital," according to Audax.
Around the same time, Audax filed a $29 million funding raise with the SEC. It's likely that Optum's investment was contained within that round. UPDATE: Audax has told MobiHealthNews...
According to a recent report from Chilmark Research, healthcare insurance companies -- or payers -- are increasingly partnering with biometric device companies. The firm calls to biometric activity tracking as the "latest fad" in payer adoption of consumer technology. Chilmark also noted a decline in the number of smartphone app launches from health plans, which launched more apps in 2012 than in...
Healthrageous.
It's clear that consolidation is finally starting to happen in mobile health.
In the third quarter of 2013, MobiHealthNews reported an unprecedented number of mobile and digital health acquisitions in a single quarter -- five. Depending on where you count Humana's acquisition of Healthrageous (which we reported on October 1st), the fourth quarter either matched or surpassed that...
Providence, Rhode Island-based ShapeUp raised $7.5 million from venture capital firms Cue Ball Capital and Excel Venture Management. The company will use the money to further develop and launch its mobile capabilities.
The company offers a social wellness program for companies and engages employees through team workout challenges that are six or eight weeks long, tracks team progress to encourage...
By Rick Lee, Founder and former CEO, Healthrageous
I was so impressed with former CEO Dave Dickinson’s postmortem on Zeo, which MobiHealthNews published in May, that I wanted to offer a similar reflection on Healthrageous.
1) BHAG: Our big, hairy, audacious goal (apologies to Tom Peters) was possibly as ambitious as boiling the ocean. David Kirchoff eloquently delineated the necessary components...
Most people agree that doing robust studies and pilots is important to the development of mobile and digital health, and to reaching the cost savings these technologies offer. But what kind of evidence is important? When is it time to stop running pilots and go to scale, and what challenges does that process offer? And furthermore, does every provider organization have to reinvent the wheel, or...
Louis Burns, CEO of Intel-GE Care Innovations since the joint venture launched in early 2011 and, before that, head of Intel's Digital Health Group, will retire at the end of the year, Roseville, Calif.-based Care Innovations announced Thursday. Taking his place will be former Humana executive Sean Slovenski, who brings a background in behavior change and wellness to the three-year-old maker of...
While most digital health tools are geared towards adults, MobiHealthNews has pointed out in the past that providing kids with similar devices might help them form better health habits. A lot of these devices are new additions to a child's daily schedule, but one company is putting a new take on an old classic.
Today, Croatia-based iDerma launched Teddy the Guardian, a handmade organic teddy bear...
Walgreens CEO Gregory Wasson
Verizon announced the election of Walgreens CEO Gregory Wasson to its board of directors, just a week after AT&T added retired Humana CEO Michael McCallister to its board.
Wasson has been Walgreens CEO since 2009, working his way up within the company from pharmacy intern in 1980. Walgreens has been a strong driver of mobile health engagement, with a hugely...
