EngageRate: Industry-First Uses Activity Data To Underwrite Insurance & Promote Wellbeing
I am thrilled to announce Performance Lab’s partnership with Vivametrica, the gold standard in activity-based health scoring, insurance underwriting and rating, to form a new company called EngageRate Inc. This is an industry-first, turnkey combination of activity-based underwriting, behavior change and customer engagement which will greatly improve health outcomes.
Based in San Francisco, and led by CEO Mark Agnew, EngageRate leverages our patented activity analytics and personalized user experience along with Vivametrica’s validated use of activity data to more quickly, accurately and cost-effectively underwrite life and health insurance. EngageRate will enable health insurers to better underwrite risk while improving client engagement, satisfaction and wellbeing through an interactive mobile experience.
Performance Lab and Vivametrica — Ideal Partners
For over 25 years, we’ve helped world class athletes and professional teams achieve their fitness goals. Our ARDA platform delivers patented activity behavior change technology that provides guidance for those working to improve their health, weight and fitness; guidance that is as personalized as you’d receive from a personal coach or clinician but with the continuous feedback you’d receive from an activity tracker. Moving into the health and insurance market was a natural extension for us and we were looking to do so with the right partner. We found that ideal partner in Vivametrica.
Vivametrica has conducted many studies, including those with Munich Re and SCOR, to prove their mortality and morbidity risk scoring tools — and they are truly game-changing for the insurance industry. They’ve shown that (other than age) physical activity is the strongest predictor of mortality and has up to 10 times more impact on mortality risk than smoking! In fact, they can say with scientific confidence that when it comes to measuring and managing mortality risk, sitting really is the new smoking.
Vivametrica can assess mortality and health risk in real time using just the data from a user’s smartphone, providing users with a health score. Likewise, our ARDA platform can leverage a user’s smartphone and wearable to establish their physiological ‘fingerprint’ and then deliver personalized activity plans and coaching. ARDA can provide simple activities that users can do to improve their health scores and as users meet their health goals they can be rewarded with lower premiums and other rewards via the ARDA Smart Training Community. We could have simply cross-licensed each other’s technology, but instead we chose to establish EngageRate as a world class, standalone company whose sole focus is to bring to market the integrated IP of both companies.
Activity is the new currency — Performance Lab provides the ‘how’
If done right, lasting activity behavior change can produce life-changing results. At Performance Lab we conducted a 1,500-participant study in a corporate setting that resulted in impressive average results: 5 percent reductions in BMI and total cholesterol, an 11 percent reduction in restingheart rate and a 22 percent increase in aerobic fitness. Program adherence was also impressive. 9 out of 10 participants using Performance Lab’s methodology met their fitness goal every year for five years while only 1 in 10 in a control group were able to do so when left on their own to pursue similar activity goals.
These results and their patented technology spoke volumes to Vivametrica, whose goal has always been to provide carriers with tools that will help them better engage with their customers, increase activity and improve overall population health. Performance Lab brings the complementary, consumer-facing ‘how’ of activity behavior engagement to the joint venture.
Engaging Users in Healthier Behavior
It’s well-established that increased activity is essential to health and longevity. Yet helping people take that first step is the key. For some, it might be a financial incentive, a health concern or an emotional trigger. At Performance Lab, we know how to get people moving and keep them moving when the inevitable interruptions of life intervene. We also bring blockchain-enabled security, privacy and incentives to the offering.
Combining our proven activity behavior change with Vivametrica’s reinsurance-validated underwriting and risk assessment creates a powerful combined offering for the insurance industry. The Global Life Insurance Market is worth US$2.9 trillion dollars per year. EngageRate provides a gateway to connect this market directly into the ARDA Smart Training Community, enabling us to make an even greater impact on health outcomes globally.
You can find the official press release here and you can visit the EngageRate website here.
Performance Lab’s Token Generating Event (TGE) for its ARDA Smart Training Community is live now. To learn more and to buy tokens visit joinarda.com, or stay informed by joining our community on Telegram.
