Samsung Gear wearables to be handed out by health insurance company for fitness tracking

Collaborating with UnitedHealthcare and Qualcomm Life, Samsung will be providing Gear Fit2 Pro fitness trackers and Gear Sport smartwatches. Members of UnitedHealthcare will be able to pick from either of the two wearables and also receive a pair of Level Active Wireless headphones.

By completing daily walking goals set by UnitedHealthcare, members will be able to have their bill reduced by amounts exceeding $1,000 annually. A custom app named F.I.T. will record workout intensity, frequency, and overall activity levels. The program is designed to encourage regular exercise habits by providing an incentive to remain active.

The Gear Sport launched just over a month ago while the Gear Fit2 Pro was unveiled in August of this year. Both devices offer automatic detection of a wide range of activities from walking and running to swimming. The two wearables are certified for use in water with a 5 ATM depth rating. Heart rate monitoring offers insight into how strenuous your day may have been.

UnitedHealthcare is not the first health insurance provider to offer tracking devices to members. Aetna was planning to use Apple Watches at one point. However, the question that remains is are the current fitness trackers accurate enough to determine how much your health insurance should cost you?

We know that fitness trackers are notoriously inaccurate compared to true medical equipment, but that may not matter. As long as comparisons are only being made between the same models of devices, results tend to be fairly repeatable allowing for appropriate conclusions to be drawn.