The Expected Effect of Wearables on the Insurer-Consumer Relationship

Boosted by the impending release of the Apple Watch, wearable devices have received a fair amount of attention recently—and with good reason. Wearables, loosely defined as miniature electronic devices that are worn under or on top of clothing, will be owned by 33% of US consumers by the end of 2017 (Nielsen). Morgan Stanley predicts that the Apple Watch will be responsible for a considerable amount of this market—it expects Apple to sell between 10 million and 30 million devices within weeks of its release. And while the wearable market itself has tremendous potential, its effect on the health insurance industry could be just as significant.

Wearables allow consumers to transmit a wealth of personal information between the device and an app on a phone, tablet or computer. This emergent technology has the potential to alter the way the health insurance industry operates on a fundamental level.

Cooperation between businesses that operate in vastly different segments of our economy — from insurers to tech companies – is vital. There is already evidence of this on a smaller scale. Samsung and Cigna partnered to build the Coach app, pre-installed on all new Galaxy phones, which helps users track and achieve fitness goals.

Read more: http://bit.ly/1A4BHQ2

Source: Insurance Networking News