Interactive wellness programs, which can facilitate health risk assessment and increased digital engagement from policyowners, are potentially an emerging trend among U.S. life insurers. While John Hancock Vitality has stood as the preeminent wellness offering in the life insurance space since 2015, more recently launched programs indicate that other top life insurers are noticing the value created by this level of digital engagement with policyowners.
In its most recent report, Corporate Insight’s Life Insurance Monitor analyzes six different life insurance wellness programs to uncover how these programs work and how insurers are delivering a digital end user experience for program participants.
Five programs currently challenge Vitality in the U.S. life insurance space
Following John Hancock’s landmark exclusive partnership with Vitality in 2015, new entrants into the life insurance interactive wellness programs space did not appear until 2019 when Sun Life began licensing the Optimity wellness app for its employee benefits clients. According to Optimity, as of 2021 their services are being used by 10 different insurers. Since 2021, four other life insurers have launched interactive wellness programs:
- Foresters Financial (2021)
- State Farm (2022)
- MassMutual (2023)
- Guardian (2024)
Wellness programs can help drive customer engagement and uncover key health risk insights
Health risk assessment forms the core of the digital experience for life insurance wellness programs. These programs place a structured health risk assessment (HRA) at the center of the digital experience, using participants’ personal health data to generate a foundational health risk score which, in turn, illuminates areas of the participant’s personal health they can improve. This approach introduces a clear baseline at enrollment, giving participants measurable feedback about how their behaviors may improve their health over time to drive engagement and providing insurers with critical data about the health risk of their policyowner pools. In terms of driving value for insurers beyond simple customer engagement, the calculus is simple: participation in a wellness program will decrease overall mortality risk.
We believe insurance products with a wellness benefit will attract and retain healthier people, can incentivize healthy people to maintain their health, and can improve the activity of some policyholders.
Compelling reward options make engagement meaningful for participants
Allowing participants to earn rewards for reaching their goals and achievements provides not only encouragement to strive toward those goals but also incentive for them to continue using the app. Firms vary in the rewards participants can earn for their healthy behaviors, with some opting for rebates and dividends and others opting for rewards in the form of gift cards, discounts and more. Enabling participants to redeem these awards in the app or have cash back rewards directly deposited into their account makes for a seamless and easy redemption experience. Since rewards are, perhaps, the key point of attraction for wellness programs, offering a compelling set of reward options is instrumental for driving high participant engagement.
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Jacob Littman
Jacob Littman is a Senior Analyst on CI's life insurance and annuities team.