December 2nd, 2008
Can Healthline give insurers wellness on the cheap?
UnitedHealth has discovered online wellness.
Since no one loves an HMO, the company has launched a new brand, OptumHealth, making an OEM deal with Healthline for its myOptumHealth wellness site.
The deal may cost United nothing out of pocket, since it is also having HealthLine provide ad services.
United emphasized that Healthline content is credible and peer-reviewed. Since it’s the first major HMO to launch such a consumer site it hopes to gain a little goodwill.
The early version of the MyOptumHealth site looks very much like the main HealthLine site, except the former uses more green.
It should also be noted that, while United will claim it’s a leader with this move it is really a laggard.
Rival Kaiser Permanente, which is also a partner in Healthline, has been moving to implement Personal Health Record technology for years, investing billions with Epic Systems to build Electronic Medical Records technology.
That’s what Healthline promises its customers. A minimal investment results in a customer-facing site that saves money through wellness and practically pays for itself through advertising.
So far it has worked well for Healthline. Its ComScore is misleading, as much of its traffic comes through OEM sites like myOptumHealth. The OEMs advertise to existing customers, offering it as a free service.
Question is, does it work for consumers? That’s what the next few years will test.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to ZDNet Healthcare via Email alerts or RSS.
