With recent offerings, life insurance goes high-tech

A blood test that can screen for cancers. An app driven by artificial intelligence aimed at helping people with their mental health. A test of someone’s saliva that can identify possible health issues in the future.

What do they have in common?

Insurance companies see these services as ways that can help policyholders live longer, healthier lives and in turn, help their bottom lines.

Massachusetts companies like John Hancock, Berkshire Life and MassMutual in the last few years have been looking for programs to help boost the health of their policyholders.

“Because the market is so competitive, many good companies are trying to distinguish themselves as very good places for people to put their trust,” said Ed Donahue, president and CEO of the Life Insurance Association of Massachusetts.

Insurance is an old industry in Massachusetts, as the state is the second oldest regulator of the industry in the nation, Donahue said. Today, the industry is a big economic player in the state. It also is a major purchaser of state and municipal bonds.

“This is a very complicated business because it’s been around so long,” Donahue said. “People have been innovating, and government has been responding — or government has been responding and people have been innovating … for a very long time.”

Enter artificial intelligence. Enter, too, recent advancements in medical technology.

For an example, look no further than the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, which in 2021 began exploring a couple pilot programs to help their policyholders interested in personal health.

More and more, people were interested in personal wellness, wearing fitness trackers, for instance.

“Against the backdrop of those trends, we began to take a closer look at wellness interventions that we could offer our policyholders at no charge,” said Michael Gallary, head of digital health and fintech at MassMutual.

MassMutual created its Health and Wellness Program in 2023. This year, it is looking to offer the program as a rider to all its eligible life insurance policyowners.

Gallary said the company is trying to find programs that have a “really meaningful impact” for health. That means partnering with a company that provides an at-home saliva test to determine, based on genetics, whether someone is at risk for certain diseases. MassMutual also offers an app, powered by AI, that nudges people to a set of positive mental health practices, such as journaling and meditation.

MassMutual says about 20% of the policyholders that took genetic testing learned that they were predisposed to certain medical conditions, such as heart disease.

Life insurance companies around the nation are interested in offering wellness programs to policyholders because it’s a win-win.

“We’re in the mortality business,” Gallary said. “And if we can provide policyholders with additional value that can help them with their health, which is a big driver of mortality, that has a financial benefit to a life insurance company, but also a personal benefit to the policyholder.”

There are limits to how insurance companies can use this information. For instance, MassMutual only receives general, anonymized data on its wellness program from the providers of the testing.

The Massachusetts Department of Insurance reviews and approves policies and riders that contain these types of wellness programs before insurance companies can offer them to the public.

A department spokesperson said it tends to support insurance companies offering wellness services or access to health technology – as long as they are intended to help policyholders. For instance, the state prohibits insurance companies from requiring residents to take a genetic test before they are issued a policy, the spokesperson said.

Berkshire Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Guardian Life Insurance Co., focuses on several disability insurance offerings. While Guardian employs more than 7,500 people, about 188 work out of its office in Pittsfield.

Guardian offers a digital platform called GuardianWell that offers wellness resources, such as discounts and, for instance, a half-year access to Peloton App One. The company was one of the first to offer cancer care support that included access to a health coach for some of its long-term disability coverage, Guardian spokesperson Katelyn Lichorat wrote in an email.

“Guardian’s purpose is to inspire well-being, and technology enables us to redefine the role insurance plays in customers’ lives,” Lichorat wrote.

Meanwhile, when it comes to artificial intelligence, the technology can help personalize and streamline the customer experience, Lichorat said.

Boston-based insurance company John Hancock has been offering policyholders wellness incentives through its John Hancock Vitality program for over a decade.

Besides early cancer screening and an app for meditation and sleep, the program offers full-body MRIs and discounts on fruits and vegetables at certain grocery stories. The company discounts the cost of life insurance premiums for customers who practice everyday health – similar to how car insurance companies have safe driver programs, a spokesperson wrote in an email.

The company offered its vitality program after observing that leading causes of death in the U.S. were diseases often influenced by lifestyle, such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

The results? About 80% of John Hancock policyholders participating in its Vitality program said their health was about the same or better than what it was 10 years ago.

Brooks Tingle, president and CEO of John Hancock, said in a statement in May that the company will continue to explore how to integrate developments in personal technology and health with its insurance products.

“This has forever changed the trajectory of our business,” he said.

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