MassMutual Launches Innovative Wellness Offerings That Help Policyowners Better Understand and Protect Their Health

BOSTON & SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) today announced that it is enabling eligible policyowners to gain knowledge about their health through a variety of tools, offerings and research so they can make informed, proactive health decisions that may help them lead longer, healthier lives.

The company’s efforts are centralized under the MassMutual Health and Wellness Program, which focuses on initiatives that provide policyowners with insights into their potential health risks, empowering them to seek out appropriate interventions and motivate healthy behaviors and lifestyles.

"For generations, MassMutual has delivered long-term value to our policyowners by providing holistic financial solutions that address their needs at each stage of life,” said Sears Merritt, Head of Enterprise Technology and Experience, MassMutual. “Now, we are proud to expand on our offerings by unveiling innovative solutions that provide them with knowledge to make choices that support their well-being, helping them to lead fulfilled lives and be there for the most meaningful moments with their loved ones.”

Examples of MassMutual Health and Wellness Program offerings that were launched over the past year include:

• A research collaboration with Genomics plc – Eligible policyowners were offered a genetic risk assessment service that provided information about their likelihood of developing three common diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. Among more than 1,400 policyowners who participated:
  • 1 in 5 learned they may be at higher risk for preventable diseases.
    
  • 71 percent planned to take preventative action, such as physician-recommended diagnostic tests and health and lifestyle modifications.

  • Reported health care visits within four months of the test doubled if a high-risk result was received.

    Due to the interest demonstrated during the initial research collaboration, MassMutual will expand availability to additional policyowners this fall, continuing as the first life insurance carrier to provide the offering. The expanded service will also assess individuals’ risk levels for additional diseases including atrial fibrillation, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension and osteopenia/osteoporosis.

• A pilot with GRAIL, LLC – Eligible policyowners were provided with access to multi-cancer early detection testing. GRAIL’s Galleri® test can detect a shared cancer signal across more than 50 types of cancer, including several for which no other form of screening is available. It can also predict the cancer signal origin, or the tissue or organ where the cancer signal originated, to help guide diagnostic evaluation. Of more than 2,200 policyowners who participated in the pilot:
  • Nearly two dozen positive cancer signals were detected; confirmed cases are being determined as individuals work with their medical providers.

  • 94 percent of participating policyowners indicated a positive overall experience with their testing.

    Based on the positive experience reported by policyowners who chose to participate in the pilot, MassMutual is considering a possible expansion.

MassMutual is also debuting exploratory initiatives that incentivize and reward healthy behaviors utilizing data from wearable devices:

• The MassMutual Wellness-Enhanced Lifestyle & Longevity (WELL) Rider pilot – This optional offering from MassMutual gives new term life insurance policyowners the opportunity to earn rewards for healthy behaviors. By voluntarily tracking and reporting their physical activity and sleep data utilizing a wearable device through the LivingWELL by MassMutual app and meeting associated goals, participants can receive cash incentives of up to 5% of their annual policy premiums. The WELL Rider, launched in September, is initially available in 22 states.

• The Lived Experiences Measured Using Rings Study (LEMURS) – MassMutual partnered with researchers at the University of Vermont (UVM) to explore lifestyle practices that impacted the health and wellness of more than 600 student volunteers, leveraging data from a ring that tracks movement and sleep data. Findings advanced MassMutual’s understanding of the correlation between well-being markers such as exercise, respiratory rate during sleep, group therapy and time spent in nature that were shown to have significant impact on reducing levels of stress and anxiety in college students. Among key findings, respiratory rate was shown to be significantly associated with stress during the first semester of college for participating students.

“We know that individuals increasingly want to take charge of their health and well-being so they can live their best lives,” said Merritt. “As a mutual company that operates for the benefit of our policyowners, we are focused on not only helping people secure their future and protect the ones they love, but also supporting their overall quality and length of life.”

The MassMutual Health and Wellness Program employs a test and learn approach, with potential for future offerings to be launched and others to be concluded depending on policyowner interest and learnings.

Participation in MassMutual Health and Wellness Program initiatives is voluntary. Results do not impact policyowners’ current policies or premiums. MassMutual only receives high-level, anonymized data from the Genomics and GRAIL offerings and leverages policyowner information strictly to facilitate providing benefits associated with using the LivingWELL by MassMutual app. UVM does not provide MassMutual with any LEMURS participant information. Anonymized, aggregate data allows the company to better understand policyowners’ health and behaviors as well as their interest in these types of offerings. Eligibility is based on factors including age, geography, and type of individual MassMutual policy.

About MassMutual

MassMutual is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyowners. Founded in 1851, the company has been continually guided by one consistent purpose: we help people secure their future and protect the ones they love. With a focus on delivering long-term value, MassMutual offers a wide range of protection, accumulation, wealth management and retirement products and services. For more information, visit www.massmutual.com.

About Genomics plc

Genomics plc is a pioneering healthcare company that aims to transform health through the power of genomics. In 2014, Professor Sir Peter Donnelly and three colleagues founded Genomics plc, spinning it out of the University of Oxford, with Peter becoming CEO in 2017. The company, which now employs over 100 people in the UK and the US, has an extensive data platform and cutting-edge analytical technology to enable prevention-first approaches to individual and population health. Genomics' powerful risk prediction tools can get more of the right people into the appropriate screening, diagnosis, and treatment pathways they need. Genomics’ core technology also supports the life sciences sector in the successful discovery and validation of new drug targets, improved clinical trial design and efficiency, and the development of novel companion diagnostics.

About GRAIL

GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. GRAIL is focused on alleviating the global burden of cancer by developing pioneering technology to detect and identify multiple deadly cancer types early. The company is using the power of next-generation sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer science and data science to enhance the scientific understanding of cancer biology, and to develop its multi-cancer early detection blood test. GRAIL is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA with locations in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and the United Kingdom. GRAIL, LLC, is a subsidiary of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) currently held separate from Illumina Inc. under the terms of the Interim Measures Order of the European Commission.

For more information, visit grail.com.

About UVM

Since 1791, the University of Vermont has worked to move humankind forward. UVM’s strengths align with the most pressing needs of our time: the health of our societies and the health of our environment. Our size—large enough to offer a breadth of ideas, resources, and opportunities, yet intimate enough to enable close faculty-student mentorship across all levels of study—allows us to pursue these interconnected issues through cross-disciplinary research and collaboration. Providing an unparalleled educational experience for our students, and ensuring their success, are at the core of what we do. As one of the nation’s first land grant universities, UVM advances Vermont and the broader society through the discovery and application of new knowledge. UVM is derived from the Latin Universitas Viridis Montis (in English, University of the Green Mountains).

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Media Contact

MassMutual: Julie Staadecker, [email protected], 617-716-9526

Source: MassMutual