Spin to win: How this life insurance company turns healthy habits into a game

Many people plan to eat well and exercise but fall behind as the day passes. Vitality is a program that rewards policyholders with points for healthy behaviors such as gym visits, buying healthy foods, tracking sleep, and completing preventive screenings and check-ups. Points can be exchanged for tangible perks including discounts on smartwatches, Amazon or Starbucks gift cards, hotel deals, retail savings, and discounts on fruits and vegetables. Policyholders move through tiers from bronze to platinum as they build and maintain healthier habits. The program uses app-based tracking and rewards such as digital prize wheels after activity benchmarks. The approach reframes life insurance as a benefit focused on living better, based on the idea that healthier customers live longer and pay premiums longer.

"The Vitality program from life insurance company John Hancock rewards policyholders with points for healthy behaviors such as going to the gym, buying healthy foods, tracking sleep, getting preventive screenings and check-ups. Points translate into tangible perks such as discounts on a new smartwatch, Amazon or Starbucks gift cards, hotel deals, savings at retail stores and discounts when purchasing fruits and vegetables."

"Just as airlines offer their frequent flyers more rewards as they fly more, customers enrolled in the Vitality program move up through tiers, from bronze to platinum, as they build healthier habits and maintain them. One of Hudack's favorite features is a digital prize wheel he can spin after hitting activity benchmarks."

""We call this the life insurance business," he says. But the reality is that for hundreds of years the focus was on death. "It was all about, hey, you're going to die, you should be prepared," Tingle says. "What we've done is literally turn that around. This is about living, and living better.""

"The company's logic is straightforward. Healthier customers live longer, pay premiums longer, and are more profitabl"

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