The Affordable Care Act allows employers to spend up to 30% of their yearly insurance premiums on healthy behavior rewards. This creates an untapped, captive market for device manufacturers. Parks Associates has projected that this year alone, about 22 million fitness-tracking devices will be sold. By 2018, that number is expected to be 66 million.

These new devices and platforms will allow employers and insurance companies to get data about people's health that was previously unavailable. These new programs will allow people to be charged according to their health data. While on the surface that tallies very nicely with the model of patient engagement and wellness care that the ACA is trying to promote, there are some possible problems here: Critics cite privacy concerns and consent issues as potential future pitfalls of the technology. Will employees be willing to share their personal habits with their employers—and is it even ethical to ask them to do so?

From the article "Apple HealthKit in talks with major insurers" by Katie Bo Williams.

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