Johnson & Johnson has teamed up with Walgreens to integrate the Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout app into the Walgreens Balance Rewards for healthy choices program.
Balance Rewards for healthy choices allows Walgreens customers to earn rewards points by tracking health markers with devices from Jawbone, Fitbit, iHealth, and Withings and apps like MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, RunKeeper, and LoseIt. With the new integration, users will also be able to get points by completing the seven-minute workout within Johnson & Johnson's app.
"Human behaviors drive the vast majority of healthcare costs," Len Greer, President of Johnson & Johnson Health and Wellness Solutions, the division of the company that oversees the app, said in a statement. "Approximately 80 percent of adult Americans don’t get the recommended amount of exercise, and lack of time and energy are among the top reasons cited for not exercising. The Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout app was designed to address these barriers. Both Walgreens and Johnson & Johnson are committed to helping consumers live healthier and more vibrant lives by providing simple, effective and engaging solutions that are personalized to meet each individual’s unique needs.”
Walgreens first launched its Balance Rewards healthy choices offering in September 2012. Walgreens’ service awards points for healthy behaviors, for example, setting health goals, tracking activity, logging weight, tracking prescriptions, and linking a third party device or app. In 2014, Walgreens updated the service to include behavior change expert Dr. BJ Fogg’s “Tiny Habits” methodology. As of April 2015, the Balance Rewards healthy choice offering had reached 800,000 users and has 250,000 connected devices. Members had set 1.5 million goals and logged 73 million miles.
In recent months, Walgreens has partnered with a wide variety of healthcare stakeholders to improve its Balance Rewards program. Last year they integrated the program with WebMD's Healthy Targets program, and just prior to that Walgreens partnered with activity tracker company Misfit, allowing owners of Misfit Shine to enroll in the Walgreens Balance Rewards program and earn points for rewards as they track activity.
In a Qualcomm Life partnership announced in January, Walgreens customers will be able to use 2net to sync certain mobile health devices, including a wrist-worn blood pressure cuff, a traditional blood pressure cuff and a blood glucose meter, directly to their Balance Rewards account, earning points each time they check their vitals. In another deal, Atari partnered with Walgreens to offer Balance Rewards points to users who are tracking their steps through Atari’s new fitness app.
Also, when Walgreens announced the launch of its new Apple Watch app it also announced Apple Pay integration for Balance Rewards.
