Ben Sommers on Fitbit's Work With Health Plans

Many payers are incorporating Fitbit technology into healthcare plans as part of both prevention and clinical treatment programs, hoping that it can help members become healthier and more active, according to Ben Sommers, MBA, vice president of North America Business Development at Fitbit Wellness.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What work is Fitbit Group Health doing with payers? Have you run into any barriers?

So, no barriers that we’ve seen today. What’s been really interesting though is, there’s so many possibilities in terms of the clinical programs where Fitbit technology can be a part of an effective treatment program. For example, I was just speaking with a leading health system just yesterday, where their hypothesis is that when it comes to heart health, especially with the advancing features within Fitbit products where we have heart rate monitoring, although we’re not an FDA medically-approved device, can we still be a useful part of a program as it relates to heart health?

One other interesting development that we’re focused on, is there an opportunity for a very large swath of the population, for an entire member base within a health plan, to actually receive Fitbit as part of their plan experience. So maybe you’re not necessarily battling a clinical condition, but just by being a member of that plan, because there’s such high value with helping folks with data, inspiration and guidance to lead a more active, healthy life. If they have this included as part of that plan, there’s actually going to be benefits both for them as the health plan and then certainly in a self-insured environment for the employer.