With the advent of mobile tools, health plans are making the leap from healthcare to health management, with the hope that more emphasis on the latter will reduce the need for the former.
The latest evidence comes in a partnership announced today in which Cigna will use MyFitnessPal's nutrition, physical activity and weight management platform to enhance its coaching programs.
"We're meeting them where they're at," said Joe Mondy, Cigna's director of public relations.
"A few years ago, the Holy Grail for us was cost and quality transparency. And step by step, we've gotten there," Mondy said. "Now we're moving on to patient engagement, and reaching … a very unhealthy America. We're realizing that dragging them by the ear into a closed room and scolding them is not the best way to get to people."
Mike Lee, co-founder of San Francisco-based MyFitnessPal, said the company's digital platform reaches more than 40 million people. Adding these tools to Cigna's online coaching program enhances that relationship, he said, because it gives the coaches a dashboard from which to measure and monitor each member's progress.
"The ability to use MyFitnessPal together with a coach gives consumers another powerful tool to achieve their goals because tracking your behavior has proven to be effective," Lee said. "Coaches also bring new interaction to a consumer’s experience. Once a consumer has given their coach access, coaches can check in virtually on their client’s progress and provide support using MyFitnessPal’s private messaging tools."
"Additionally, clients previously spent precious time on the phone updating their coaches on what they were eating and their exercise activities. Now they can simply give their coach access to that information in advance, and use their phone time to dive right into support and personalized coaching."
Cigna isn't the first health plan to use mHealth tools to connect with its members – several Blues plans are using different tools and platforms, as are Kaiser, Aetna, Highmark and WellPoint, to name just a few. The deal with MyFitnessPal, though, marks a slowly growing trend of targeting health and wellness tools – in essence, working with members to make healthier lifestyle choices and prevent more costly health issues that would develop later.
Mondy said Cigna is working to breach that "artificial barrier" between the health plan and the consumer. "They see us as the gatekeeper," he said. "What we really want to be is a health enabler."
To that end, he said, the online platform is integrated with Cigna's rewards programs, enabling the payer to not only coach and reinforce healthy lifestyle choices, but to offer incentives as well.
"Health providers are increasingly focused on preventative measures to control spending on healthcare costs," added Lee. "So their goals are very aligned with MyFitnessPal’s mission to encourage everyday health. It is a rapidly evolving market in which we certainly see opportunities to collaborate on the shared goal of driving positive health outcomes."
“The digital health movement is evolving rapidly and it’s exciting to see how it’s fueling our customers’ interest in getting healthy and staying fit. Many are already using MyFitnessPal and are discussing their food and fitness logs when they connect with their coaches,” said Jackie Aube, Cigna's senior vice president of product solutions, in a press release. “By integrating new technologies like MyFitnessPal, we’re not only creating a more personal relationship with our customers, but helping them reach their goals more quickly and conveniently. This partnership makes the coaching process more rewarding for both customers and coaches.”
