UnitedHealthcare will pay for your Apple Watch if you meet your fitness goals

Walk off your new Apple Watch
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Back in 2016 UnitedHealthcare and Qualcomm teamed up on a fitness program called Motion. It's an incentive program that can earn you up to $1,460 a year by meeting fitness goals. While it started with a custom wearable, it soon added support for devices from Fitbit and then Samsung and Garmin.

And now it's adding the Apple Watch. UnitedHealthcare Motion members will either be able to use their existing Apple Watch or buy a new one for the program. You can then apply your monetary rewards to pay off your Apple Watch within six months. You will have to pay tax and shipping though.

Read this: Apple Watch's Activity and Workout apps explained

Motion can earn you up to $4 a day if you hit 12,000 steps. Those 10,000 steps are broken into three metrics, which are referred to collectively as FIT. F is for frequency, which means doing 500 steps within seven minutes six times a day, at least an hour apart between each session.

I is for intensity, which will have you do 3,000 steps within 30 minutes. T is for tenacity, which is hitting 10,000 steps in a day. If you do all of them, you've earned the maximum amount you can earn per day, which will go toward your Apple Watch.

Naturally, you'll be able to use your Apple Watch to see your progress on your wrist, and use its sensors to put that data together. UnitedHealthcare says that participants in the program have garnered 235 billion steps and $38 million in rewards since its inception.

When you do eventually pay off your shiny Apple Watch, the money you earn through Motion will go toward your medical costs. So you can pay off things like copays, prescriptions and deductibles.



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Husain Sumra

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Husain joined Wareable in 2017 as a member of our San Fransisco based team. Husain is a movies expert, and runs his own blog, and contributes to MacRumors.

He has spent hours in the world of virtual reality, getting eyes on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR. 

At Wareable, Husain's role is to investigate, report and write features and news about the wearable industry – from smartwatches and fitness trackers to health devices, virtual reality, augmented reality and more.

He writes buyers guides, how-to content, hardware reviews and more.


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