Cigna launches gamified digital health coaching

Cigna has launched a new digital health coaching program that offers a "digital ecosystem" of mobile tools, social media engagement, gamification and web-based incentives to help its members meet their health goals.

The new program, called Cigna Health Matters, grew out of the insurer's recognition that despite spending millions of dollars a year on diet and exercise websites and apps, consumers have been slow to adopt insurers' mobile health tools.

"Cigna Health Matters integrates the latest insights and practices of the sociology of engagement, motivation and rewarding behavior change with the latest in health tools and technology," Cigna Vice President of Product Development Eric Herbek said in a statement. "By combining clinical insights, health coaches, digital tools, measurement and reward engines, we have our customers' backs to help them get on the right path, and stay on it, for better health for themselves and their families."

When Cigna members enroll in their health plan, they can start interacting with Cigna Health Matters through a gamified health assessment. The insurer found that by making the health survey into a game, its completion rate jumped from about 30 percent to 90 percent.

From the assessment, which incorporates members' health information like Body Mass Index, cholesterol and blood pressure, the Health Matters program creates a score for each member that continually evolves based on members' health situations.

Cigna Health Matters also allows members to earn rewards for completing certain activities and reaching certain milestones. "This link is crucial as during the past several years, we've learned the importance of connecting health improvement to tangible, immediate, recognition and incentives," Herbek said.

Some aspects of Cigna Health Matters are similar to the insurer's previous Go You initiative, which was part of its individual-focused campaign that it launched in 2011, and has now been folded into Health Matters. "The GoYou Marketplace--the curated health, wellness and fitness app store--is a part of the Health Matters ecosystem," a Cigna spokesperson told MobiHealthNews. "We have simply named it 'Apps & Activities,' which in our user testing was found to be a more easily understood name."

To learn more:
- here's the Cigna statement
- read the MobiHealthNews article