wearables

The growing popularity of wearables presents insurers with an unparalleled opportunity to better assess risk – yet many carriers are not fully realizing the value of data from these devices.
 

In this edition of ReCent Medical News, Paul Edwards explains why health and fitness data captured through the use of wearables is potentially very meaningful for life insurance underwriting.

Brooks Tingle, president and chief executive officer, John Hancock Insurance, said the organization wants to promote engagement with insureds by partnering with a growing range of tech and service providers. Tingle spoke with AM BestTV at InsureTech Connect 2019, held in Las Vegas.

Wearable technology could dramatically change the way life carriers do business and interact with their customers. See what some insurers are already doing with wearables.

The cutting edge of the insurance industry involves adjusting premiums and policies based on new forms of surveillance.

There’s not enough oversight for apps that track everything from people’s fitness routines to their menstrual cycles, bioethicists say.

Technological advances in biosensors and increasing amounts of heart rate data from wearable devices and electronic health records are leading to the development of more sophisticated underwriting algorithms. This data, when coupled with robust epidemiological evidence about the prognostic value of heart rate, may improve insurer understanding of cardiovascular risk and ultimately allow underwriters to better predict morbidity and mortality risk.

Wearables introduce a multitude of ways to monitor health. The quality and quantity of information supplied by wearables will transform how we manage our lives. There is a huge opportunity for life insurance companies to change the way we interact with our customers and to improve how we manage risk.

New global research released by Vitality, a leading behavior change platform, reveals that financial incentives combined with wearables encourage people to significantly increase their physical activity.

Customers can withhold their fitness data, but that will result in higher premiums, which may put life insurance out of reach for low-income earners. This in turn could have an impact on whether would-be homeowners can take out mortgages, some of which can require a life insurance policy on the principle borrower.