News Briefs
✦ Anthem, Inc. is teaming up with the University of California, Irvine, Apple, Inc., and a company called CareEvolution to launch a study that examines whether devices like the Apple Watch and iPhone can help people with asthma manage their condition. As part of a two-year, randomized controlled study, Anthem-affiliated health plan members who have been diagnosed with asthma will get a digital tool that includes “daily symptom and trigger tracking to provide awareness of asthma control and personalized nudges based on changes in signals from their Apple Watch including activity, heart rate, the new Blood Oxygen feature and other health metrics.” Read more at https://bit.ly/2EgbZI4.
✦ Between 2018 and 2019, the number of uninsured Americans rose from 28.6 million (8.9% of the population) to 29.6 million (9.2%), according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Notably, those findings do not capture insurance losses due to the current recession related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other findings, the report said Hispanic Americans experienced the largest year-over-year change in uninsured rates among racial/ethnic groups, with that rate growing from 17.9% in 2018 to 18.7% in 2019 — primarily driven by “a 1.4 percentage-point decrease in the percentage of Hispanics with public coverage.” To view the Census Bureau report, visit https://bit.ly/3mwj1ty.