Qualcomm teams with UnitedHealthcare to push wearable wellness in the workplace

Qualcomm and health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare are rolling out a wearable-based incentive program that offers employees cash rewards for meeting certain healthy lifestyle targets.

The program is called UnitedHealthcare Motion and it's currently available to companies with between 101 and 300 employees in a dozen states.

It offers employees and their spouses up to $4 per day if they walk a certain number of steps, tabulated on the Trio Tracker clip pictured above.

For instance, 300 steps within 5 minutes, six times per day earns the enrollee $1.50. Clocking 3,000 steps within 30 minutes earns another $1.25, and walking a total of 10,000 steps a day adds an additional $1.25.

The program is linked primarily to high-deductible health plans and employee cash incentives are capped at $1,460 per year. Employers ultimately have the freedom to decide how they want to reward employees.

Employers can also save on premiums based on combined results of program participants.

For Qualcomm's part, the chipmaker is providing "medical-grade connectivity" through Qualcomm Life's 2net Platform, which runs the UnitedHealthcare Motion app. The platform works to ensure patient privacy and security is in compliance with the federal HIPAA rules.

The agreement with UnitedHealthcare is just the latest push from Qualcomm into the health and wearables market.

Last month Qualcomm rolled out the Snapdragon Wear 2100 system on a chip for new wearable devices.