Fitbit Group Health customers demonstrate corporate wellness programs leads to healthcare savings

This post was originally published on the Fitbit press site. It has been adapted from its original format.

Fitbit, the leader in the connected health and fitness market, announced significant cost savings and health impact for two Fitbit Group Health customers, demonstrating that Fitbit corporate wellness programs can give employers a return on their investment. An analysis conducted by Springbuk, an employer-facing health intelligence platform, found that after two years, the employees who opted-into a Fitbit corporate wellness program incurred 24.5% less per person on average in total annual healthcare costs than a control group. Fitbit also announced results from another employer, Dayton Regional Transit Authority, who determined that their Fitbit corporate wellness program demonstrated $2.3 million in employer cost savings and healthy outcomes for program participants.

Over the last six years, Fitbit Group Health has provided organizations and employers with technology and services to help their populations to lead healthier, more active lives. Over 2.6 million Fitbit users, including employees at 70 of the Fortune 500, connect their data into population health and health management platforms comprising Fitbit's own corporate wellness solution, health plan platforms, management solutions and more.

Employer and Employees Realized Lower Healthcare Costs through Fitbit Corporate Wellness Program

Springbuk used three years of medical claims, pharmacy, biometric and activity data to analyze the effects of a corporate wellness program using the Fitbit platform on the employee population of a large, self-insured employer with over 20,000 employees. The study established a baseline (before Fitbit) with the first year of data, then analyzed the impact of the Fitbit program over two years. In addition to subsidized Fitbit trackers, the employer’s program utilized Fitbit’s enterprise software offering.

The analysis found that after two years of the program, across a representative sample set of 2,689 individuals:

• 866 employees who opted into the program had healthcare costs that were on average 24.5% less than that of a control group’s – an average cost savings of nearly $1,300 per participant during the 2nd year of the program. This is a significantly wider gap than the cost differential observed for the same individuals during the baseline year in which average costs for the opt-in group were only 7.9% less than that of a control group.
• Of those who opted into the program, 266 employees who used their Fitbit tracker for at least half the duration of the program decreased their healthcare costs by 45.6% on average.

“This demonstration of impact achieved by integrating Fitbit technology into an employee wellness program reinforces our belief in the power of health data and measurement in demonstrating ROI,” said Rod Reasen, co-founder and CEO of Springbuk. “The study shows that a combination of Fitbit activity trackers with a comprehensive wellness program can enable employers to see significant impact on their healthcare costs.”

Dayton RTA Reduces Healthcare Costs and Improves Outcomes with A Fitbit Corporate Wellness Program

In 2014, The Dayton Regional Transit Authority (RTA) made the decision to become self-insured and needed to maintain a strict focus on reducing healthcare costs. As a result, Dayton RTA launched a pilot program that integrated a partially subsidized Fitbit activity tracker for each participant, biometric screenings, health coaching, goal setting and participation incentive.

Positive outcomes of the Fitbit program include:

• Improvement in health outcomes including an average decrease in LDL cholesterol levels of 12 points and an average decrease in glucose levels of 17 points, after year one.
• Dayton RTA rolled out the Fitbit program to their 600+ employees as a result of the successful pilot.
• Dayton RTA estimates that they were able to save $2.3 million over two years (on a projected spend of $15.5 million) as a result of the Fitbit corporate wellness program

“When you are a bus driver, sitting for eight hours a day is part of the job,” said Mark Donaghy, chief executive officer of Dayton Regional Transit Authority. “We knew we had to get our employees moving to improve their health and our budget. After two years, we have seen millions of dollars in savings that would not have been possible without Fitbit.”

Fitbit Group Health continues to grow its presence in the population health management industry. In 2015 alone, Fitbit Group Health added more than 1,000 employer customers, including large enterprises and premiere brands such as Barclays, Godaddy.com, and Target. Key partners include corporate wellness vendors such as StayWell and Virgin Pulse; and health plans such as Anthem and Humana.