MyFitnessPal announced a partnership with health insurance company Cigna, which will combine MyFitnessPal’s nutrition, physical activity and weight management resource with Cigna's health coaching programs. The offering will give customers the option to connect their MyFitnessPal accounts with their personal Cigna coach to instantly share their diet and exercise activity.
Wellness tracking platform MyFitnessPal offers users a food database and coaching program so that users can stay healthy and improve their diets. The company also recently shared a figure of 40 million members who are on its platform.
This new initiative is MyFitnessPal’s first formal expansion into the insurance and healthcare industry, according to the press release, although the company previously integrated with Aetna on its Carepass platform for consumers.
“The digital health movement is evolving rapidly and it’s exciting to see how it’s fueling our customers’ interest in getting healthy and staying fit," Jackie Aube, senior vice president, Product Solutions, Cigna said in a statement. "...By integrating new technologies like MyFitnessPal, we’re not only creating a more personal relationship with our customers, but helping them reach their goals more quickly and conveniently. This partnership makes the coaching process more rewarding for both customers and coaches.”
The program is currently available only in the US although the company aims to expand it's offering outside the US in 2014.
Just one month ago, MyFitnessPal raised $18 million in a round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield. MyFitnessPal said at the time that they would use the funding to grow its team and expand to more countries. Already, the fitness system is available in some European and South American countries. Users can download the app in French, German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
Cigna also announced news that came out of another partnership. HopeLab's free cancer-fighting Re-Mission 2 online games and the Re-Mission 2: Nanobot's Revenge mobile app, which Cigna helped develop, will demo at a conference this week. The games are designed to help young cancer patients stick to their treatments are are available online or to download for Android and iOS mobile devices.
