Fitness-tracking device maker Fitbit is set to grow its corporate wellness program after adding HIPAA certification to its arsenal, the company announced on Wednesday.
Fitbit Wellness is the company’s business-to-business service. Through the program companies can create dedicated storefronts where employees purchase Fitbit activity trackers. Participating companies are also provided with a dashboard to monitor how well employees are performing and provide incentives for employees to live a healthier lifestyle.
Although the corporate service only generates about 10% of the company’s overall revenue, it’s “one of the fastest growing business units in the company” partly due to high health care costs and employer efforts to reduce costs, said CEO James Park to Bloomberg News.
Meanwhile, Park also revealed that Target will join Fitbit’s wellness program. The retail titan will offer Fitbit’s wrist-worn activity trackers to 335,000 employees across the U.S., and—as an extra incentive—will divide a total of $1 million between employees with the highest average daily step counts to local non-profits focused on healthy living.
During the Q2 2015, Fitbit’s first quarter as a public company, the company also announced corporate wellness agreements with Geico and Quicken Loans (among others).
The new certification makes it possible for Fitbit to target HIPAA-covered entities, such as self-insured employers, with its wellness program. The certification also validates Fitbit’s approach to keeping user information private and secure—a fact Park hasn’t shied away from mentioning in the past—by following the same standards and practices insurance providers and doctors must follow.
According to Amy McDonough, vice-president and general manager of Fitbit Wellness, moving forward the company will focus on securing more partnerships with businesses. “[HIPPA compliance] will really allow us to work more closely [with companies with HIPAA obligations] in a more integrated fashion to be able to help build more effective wellness programs using Fitbit technology.”
The announcement means little to end users in terms of overall experience, says McDonough. “There’s not a change in the day-to-day experience with the device or the interactive features of the website or mobile app,” she said.
The latest IDC report placed Fitbit atop the wearable market with 4.4 million units shipped at a 24.3% global market share in the second quarter. Closely behind Fitbit was the Apple Watch, with an estimated 3.8 million devices shipped and 19.9% share.
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