With more than 40,000 mobile health apps available these days, it's difficult for consumers to choose the right ones, let alone physicians or health plans to find the right ones to recommend.
The process of sorting through all those apps has fallen on health plans and a select few companies who can certify them based on a strict set of standards. One such effort was unveiled Tuesday at the Health 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., with the launch of the Go You Cigna Marketplace.
The marketplace is being offered by Cigna, the Bloomington, Conn.-based global health service company serving some 30 countries and 80 million members. Cigna is partnering with SocialWellth, a Las Vegas-based digital health company offering platforms for health plans and self-insured employers to connect with members and deliver appropriate digital content.
The goal, officials say, is to provide a landing site for members that features certified health and wellness apps, while allowing health plans and self-insured businesses to track member participation and push directed content.
“When it comes to choosing the best health and fitness app, 40,000 choices is no real choice at all,” said Joan Kennedy, Cigna's senior vice president of consumer health engagement, in a September 30 press release. “The Go You Cigna Marketplace will be designed to meet each individual where they are, and offer customers a wonderfully specific and engaging starting point for their fantastic journey to improved health and achieving their potential.”
“As we develop this marketplace, we will certify additional health improvement apps that our customers tell us work for them, that they can stick to, and get the results they want," she said. "Over time, these apps will be integrated with our Cigna health coaches and employer-sponsored incentive programs so that each individual can develop his or her strengths and make their health an engaging, rewarding and fun part of their everyday lives.”
“We are honored to be working with Cigna as they continue with their consumer health engagement efforts by offering a profile-driven marketplace where their customers can expect tailored offerings based on their preferences,” added David Vinson, SocialWellth's founder and CEO, in the release. “Our solution platform provides Cigna customers with the power of technology and social media designed to help strengthen trusted connections between them and their Cigna health plan services.”
With payers and integrated networks like Kaiser Permanente, Aetna, WellPoint, Highmark and Cigna making full use of mHealth tools to connect with members, the challenge lies in helping them manage their choices. In an interview earlier this month, Joe Mondy, Cigna's director of public relations, said payers need to breach that "artificial barrier" between consumers and health plans. "They see us as the gatekeeper," he said. "What we really want to be is a health enabler."
In an interview with mHealthNews prior to the 2012 mHealth Summit last December, Aetna CEO and President Marc Bertolini – who delivered the opening keynote at the summit – said mHealth will be the tool of choice for healthcare consumers in the near future, and the payer market will need to be on top of that market to help its members make smart healthcare decisions.
"Adoption rates and utilization behaviors are having the greatest impact on mHealth. At the end of 2010, 9 percent of mobile phone users had apps on their phones to track or manage their health. By 2015, experts predict 30 percent of smartphone users are likely to use wellness apps," he said. "More and more people, across all demographic segments, are turning to mobile devices to find health information and make healthcare decisions. So, the data shows we’ve reached the tipping point with mobile … the global population expects to use mobile devices to manage their lives, and for an increasing segment, that includes their health. We need to give them the tools to make it easy."
