Look’s like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is playing copycat…

The tech company’s next big thing might not be something we wear, drive, or even touch.

It just might be our bodies.

Not too long ago, I told you all about the latest health care venture between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase.

Their vision is to pinpoint “ways to address healthcare for their U.S. employees, with the aim of improving employee satisfaction and reducing costs.”

And now, it appears that Apple is following suit with its own health care endeavor.

The initiative will initially be limited to employees and those employees’ families when it launches this spring, which might even end happening as soon as sometime in March…

An Apple a Day

The subsidiary medical clinics that Apple is planning to open will operate under the name AC Wellness.

To start, there will be two clinic locations in Santa Clara County. And AC Wellness has already quietly posted job listings for primary and acute care physicians, nurse practitioners, phlebotomists, and an exercise and wellness coach.

Apple is also searching for clinical program designers to help in creating programs that would assist in preventing disease and promoting healthy lifestyles for its employees and those employees’ families.

You can find these ads on Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn.

The idea makes sense. Apple will already be coughing up significant fees to provide health care services for its employees, so actually launching its own service makes complete sense.

It could reduce running costs while leveraging the offer for future health insights.

Apple has been quite ambitious in the past regarding health care.

CEO Tim Cook recently told shareholders that he thinks that his company could make a “significant contribution” to the sector.

With costs of health care skyrocketing and the fight over Obamacare still underway in Congress, Cook went on to say, “We can ask ourselves, how can we improve the health of the user, not worrying about if we can convince the federal government to give us a reimbursement or not.”

And that’s no idle claim…

A Healthy Outlook

As a company at the heart of mobile transformation, Apple is in a good position to figure out how to use technology effectively for patient care.

The perfect storm of Apple’s mobile technologies and its capacity to work with large sample groups mean that it could have a huge impact on future health provisions on a global scale.

“Health is a huge issue around the world and we think it’s ripe for simplicity and a new view,” Cook said at a May 2016 conference in Amsterdam.

For now, Apple’s employees will essentially become the testing ground for what could become a big sector for the company.

Patient records, activity data, software, and future health-related services can now be deployed and privately tested against a huge population. Apple Park hosts at least 12,000 staff, some 123,000 employees worldwide, and those employees’ families. 

Apple is actively working on a plethora of health-related solutions, from noninvasive blood glucose monitoring to a wide variety of research and study attempts to identify and provide proof for ways in which its technology can make a difference in health.

Since the launch of its Health app on iOS and Apple Watch, Apple has been actively interested in technology’s effect on health.

Recently, Apple, with the help of researchers at Stanford University, has used its Apple Watch’s heart sensor as a way to study heart disease and detect irregular heart rhythms.

The company has also worked with hospitals in the past to streamline patient records and test results.

Part of the AC Wellness initiative will no doubt be focused on preventative care and fitness through using Apple Watches and iPhones to track and motivate healthy living and active lifestyles…

The Bottom Line

The government estimates that around 69 million workers call in sick each year, reducing national productivity by $290 billion.

Americans, on average, seek about half the amount of preventative care that they should, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Around 70% of deaths each year are caused by chronic preventable diseases, like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, that could have been caught with regular checkups.

So, with its dedication to health and preventative care in the recent past, it’s really not too surprising that Apple has decided to enter the health care sector.

The real question is whether or not it will be able to disrupt the health care sector.

Apple isn’t just the most valuable company in the world — it’s also one of the most trusted.

And although the new AC Wellness clinics will remain limited to employee benefits for the foreseeable future, it’s not hard to imagine the potential impact that buying health care coverage through Apple could have, rather than buying it through Blue Cross or Cigna.

That’s all for now.

Until next time,

John Peterson
Pro Trader Today