Virgin HealthMiles has added Fitbit integration to its online employee health offering. The Framingham-based Richard Branson company recently announced that it would offer its program to family members of subscribed employees for free. Now those employees and family members who use Fitbit activity trackers and weight scales will be able to connect those devices to their Virgin HealthMiles...
Virgin HealthMiles' current GoZone pedometer.
Virgin HealthMiles, a gamified employee wellness program, announced that, starting in October, it will let employees invite up to three family members to use the program for free. Between adding family members and drawing in new members because of the perk, Virgin HealthMiles expects its user base to see a big boost in the next year.
"On the scale...
This month, Medicare revealed the list of more than 2,000 hospitals losing up to 2 percent of their funding for failing to sufficiently reduce readmissions. Next year, those penalties can rise even higher.
As troubling as this can be for hospitals, it should be good news for mobile health entrepreneurs, as the wake up call may drive hospitals to explore technology like telehealth, remote patient...
Denver-based iTriage, maker of a mobile and Web app that helps consumers find physicians based on symptoms they are experiencing, is working with parent company Aetna to offer mid-sized employer groups a customizable version of the app that guides users to in-network providers. iTriage expects the newly released update to save employers money and cut the administrative burden for hospitals and...
A qualitative study by Weiss Cornell Medical Center found many benefits to digital patient-physician communication.
A new qualitative study from Weill Cornell Medical Center, published in Health Affairs, suggests that physician-patient communication by email or a secure patient portal offers significantly more advantages than disadvantages. However, the study authors speculate adoption of...
Premera Blue Cross Director of Member Engagement Neal Sofian and Blue Shield of California Senior Wellness Program Manager Ritu Riyat introduced ways in which their respective health plans are incentivizing patients and providing meaningful data to improve their everyday life at a mobile health conference last week in Boston.
Sofian takes issue with the one size fits all approach to a lot of...
Health insurer Humana is turning to telehealth systems provider AMC Health in an effort to keep patients with congestive heart failure out of hospitals, saving money for the payer and improving the quality of life for a high-risk population.
In a pilot launched last month, 450 Humana Medicare Advantage members in Ohio with CHF are receiving A&D Medical Products weight scales and blood-...
Grocery store chain Safeway gives employees discounts on their health insurance for having certain body mass indexes, quitting smoking, controlling hypertension or lowering their cholesterol, according to a report from National Public Radio this week. Safeway CEO Steve Burd told the radio network that his company's employees receive a discount on their health insurance if they have a body mass...
On the same day that its former leader launched his own online healthcare start-up, Google Health announced that it had inked deals with two more health insurers: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and American Postal Workers Union Health Plan. That brings the count up to three insurers since Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA signed on last year. Google released the announcement at the Health 2.0 event,...
The former head of Google Health, Adam Bosworth, has finally launched his long-heralded consumer health start-up, Keas, according to a report today in the The New York Times. The site offers various personalized care plans for users that aim to take their personal health information and help them make healthier decisions:
"Using the Keas system, for example, a person with Type 2 diabetes might...
