Apple Watch data privacy, cost main concerns in Apple and Aetna partnership
In a meeting earlier this month, Apple, Aetna and a number of industry influencers discussed the viability of offering Apple Watch to millions of health insurance subscribers at a discount, but according to one attendee, sticking points remain.
On Monday, it was reported that Apple and Aetna held a two-day conference to talk about potential partnerships with major hospital chains looking to improve health awareness through wearable technology platforms like Apple Watch. Aetna is evaluating whether to offer the device to its 23 million customers.
Additional details of the meeting surfaced on Thursday. According to Mandi Bishop, the head of digital health startup Lifely Insights who attended the gathering, data privacy was a major concern for all involved parties, CNBC reports.
"Both companies wanted to make sure that we knew what data is shared and what isn't," Bishop said of Apple and Aetna.
Aetna is currently running an internal pilot program to better understand what benefits, if any, Apple Watch offers in promoting exercise and better eating habits. Employees testing the device asked whether gathered data could be shared with third-party vendors or offloaded into other apps.
As can be expected, Apple "repeatedly stressed" that Apple Watch data, such as steps taken and heart rate information, is only shared with user consent. Currently, certain Apple Watch data can be accessed by apps integrating HealthKit and ResearchKit APIs, which adhere to the same user privacy rules.
Unit cost was another topic of discussion. Notably, Aetna employees enrolled in the pilot program want to purchase Apple Watch units for family members but are unable to bear to afford additional devices. Cost remains an unresolved issue and it is not clear whether Aetna intends to extend employee, and potentially subscriber, discounts to family, the report said.
Finally, some testers brought up complained that Apple Watch lacks situational awareness. As noted in the report, users might receive notifications to meditate when in a meeting or a stand reminders when on a long plane flight. These complaints speak to an ongoing push for a completely seamless user experience in which Watch gathers information about its environment and reacts accordingly. Though Apple owns a number of patents that could help in this regard, the cutting-edge technology requires infrastructure that is likely not ready for consumer adoption.
Apple and Aetna are aiming to roll out an Apple Watch program for subscribers in 2018, according to prior reports. The insurance company began to offer Watch discounts to select users last year as part of a program that also furnished 50,000 Aetna employees with free units.
On Monday, it was reported that Apple and Aetna held a two-day conference to talk about potential partnerships with major hospital chains looking to improve health awareness through wearable technology platforms like Apple Watch. Aetna is evaluating whether to offer the device to its 23 million customers.
Additional details of the meeting surfaced on Thursday. According to Mandi Bishop, the head of digital health startup Lifely Insights who attended the gathering, data privacy was a major concern for all involved parties, CNBC reports.
"Both companies wanted to make sure that we knew what data is shared and what isn't," Bishop said of Apple and Aetna.
Aetna is currently running an internal pilot program to better understand what benefits, if any, Apple Watch offers in promoting exercise and better eating habits. Employees testing the device asked whether gathered data could be shared with third-party vendors or offloaded into other apps.
As can be expected, Apple "repeatedly stressed" that Apple Watch data, such as steps taken and heart rate information, is only shared with user consent. Currently, certain Apple Watch data can be accessed by apps integrating HealthKit and ResearchKit APIs, which adhere to the same user privacy rules.
Unit cost was another topic of discussion. Notably, Aetna employees enrolled in the pilot program want to purchase Apple Watch units for family members but are unable to bear to afford additional devices. Cost remains an unresolved issue and it is not clear whether Aetna intends to extend employee, and potentially subscriber, discounts to family, the report said.
Finally, some testers brought up complained that Apple Watch lacks situational awareness. As noted in the report, users might receive notifications to meditate when in a meeting or a stand reminders when on a long plane flight. These complaints speak to an ongoing push for a completely seamless user experience in which Watch gathers information about its environment and reacts accordingly. Though Apple owns a number of patents that could help in this regard, the cutting-edge technology requires infrastructure that is likely not ready for consumer adoption.
Apple and Aetna are aiming to roll out an Apple Watch program for subscribers in 2018, according to prior reports. The insurance company began to offer Watch discounts to select users last year as part of a program that also furnished 50,000 Aetna employees with free units.
Comments
Android OS will never lose market share based on people's concern over privacy. Apple actually seems a tad overprotective about privacy. Analysts are always saying how Apple should grab more user's information to improve Siri. Look at Facebook. Its main purpose is to get people to share practically everything they do and they supposedly have 2B users happily coughing up personal data. If the average joe was really concerned about privacy, it wouldn't be possible for Android OS to have 90% global market share and Facebook wouldn't be one of the top FANG stocks. All the FANG stocks are great at sucking user's personal information on a daily basis. No one is outraged by any of it. All the companies that harvest user data are Wall Street's favorite companies.
I dare say an active, healthy user also gets a discounted premium on the insurance side too.
but you are right about Wall Street, they don't understand a company that sells products that make people happy and delight them. they value companies that lock people into crappy services and data mine them.
But, in the healthcare industry, personal privacy is a MAJOR concern. It's the law: HIPAA
But, this initiative adds a newer privacy concern to it: Would you want your company, healthcare or life insurance provider looking over your shoulder to see if you closed your rings today or got in your 30 minutes or polished off a pepperoni pizza?
Today, authoritative estimates are that we spend 70-80% of our $3Trillion dollars in annual healthcare spending to treat chronic disease (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, etc) that could have been prevented or substantially delayed with healthy lifestyles: diet, exercise and stress reduction.
This initiative will never come from the providers (large hospitals, etc...) because they are profit driven and their profit comes neither from healthy people nor from dead people. It comes from those in the middle; the walking dead: the obese guy with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, angina and prostate cancer.
Insurers though actually pay for those treatments and have a financial incentive to reduce them. And, there is only one feasible, socially acceptable way to reduce them: promote health over disease treatment. The Apple Watch could be one of the keys to both unlock that door health and to validate the research that shows that it does reduce both disease and health care spending...
Are there any other proactive or preventative health-related features that come to the Watch this year or in within the next few years?
... So, yes -- but indirectly...
As for your last point: I think the AW is already the best product around at promoting all around physical activity and daily exercise as well as stress reduction. But, I see it refining, improving and expanding those areas -- especially as it gains input and feedback from healthcare professionals outside of the Apple umbrella.
In short, health comes mostly from how a person lives their life (rather than a physician treating a disease). And, the Apple Watch is at the top of the heap in terms of gadgets that promote a healthy lifestyle -- but that is pretty much an untapped and unexplored area. I look at much more and much better in the future....
If they want to help make the world healthier, get iCloud between the consumers of food and those who serve it --not just in terms of ordering, paying and delivery but also nutritional information, consumption and quality tracking ("I saw that you ordered a pizza an hour ago, how many slices did you eat? Touch the number of stars you gave it.") so that you can give expert advice the next time around ("You should probably consider ordering chicken because you ate several pounds of pizza last week. Shall I order chicken instead of pizza?").
And, by the way, the apps to monitor diet that you suggest already exist in the app store. I've used them and they worked surprisingly well...
But I still don't consider it "Preventative". Instead, it's just early detection. For me, prevention means actually preventing the disease -- and currently the only way to do that is through diet and exercise.
BTW, some believe that there is no actual hard line between pre-diabetes and diabetes. Instead, they consider pre-diabetes to be just milder form of the disease.