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What You Should Know:
– ŌURA and Cigna Healthcare have announced a strategic collaboration aimed at integrating continuous biometric insights with expertise in preventive care and chronic disease management.
– The partnership builds upon ŌURA’s earlier work with Essence, a Medicare Advantage plan, demonstrating the wearable’s evolving role from a consumer device to a clinical-grade, payer-aligned prevention tool.
I. Shifting Wellness Dollars to Proactive Prevention
The collaboration seeks to redefine how employers utilize allocated wellness funds. Cigna Healthcare is enabling its clients to leverage “use-it-or-lose-it” wellness dollars to purchase the Oura Ring for employees at a meaningful discount, sometimes up to 45%. This strategy aims to shift allocated funds toward prevention by putting medical-grade sensing directly on employees’ fingers.
Maximizing ROI Through High Utilization
Historically, employees have used only 60% of the wellness stipends provided by their employers, leaving a substantial 40% of allocated wellness funds unused in 2024. ŌURA’s form factor addresses this core utilization challenge:
- High Compliance: The Oura Ring delivers high compliance with an average wear time of ~23.5 hours/day.
- Rapid Perceived Benefits: New users report rapid perceived benefits within 30 days, including improved overall health (90%), better sleep (88%), reduced stress (81%), and enhanced productivity (79%).
This high engagement makes the Oura Ring a strong fit for benefit programs where utilization matters.
Impact on Chronic Disease Management and Costs
For Cigna payers, connecting ŌURA’s continuous biometric data—including sleep, activity, and stress signals—with Cigna’s clinical expertise delivers significant benefits:
- Cost Reduction: The integration is expected to lead to lower PMPM (Per Member Per Month) costs, particularly for chronic and comorbid populations.
- Early Intervention: Continuous biometric monitoring enables earlier intervention and better recovery, strengthening continuity of care and improving cardiometabolic outcomes.
Certain Cigna Healthcare clients are offering a complimentary Oura Ring 4 and a prepaid annual Oura Membership to eligible employees, making wellness and recovery a daily practice.
