Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance has signed a multi-year agreement with Human Longevity around its genome sequencing product, HLIQ Whole Genome.
The deal subsidizes the cost of using the platform for customers, employees and financial professionals who voluntarily enroll in the program, which allows physicians to look at an individual's genome and identify potential health risks. Though MassMutual will not receive any personal health data from Human Longevity (HLI), the company's growing database of genome information could help life insurers better understand risk and adjust product design accordingly.
Both policyholders and doctors receive electronic and print versions of the genome report upon completion,
“MassMutual has long believed that both financial and physical health are important components of individual well-being,” said Gareth Ross, MassMutual’s chief digital and customer experience officer. “Our cutting-edge agreement with HLI may better enable our customers, employees and financial professionals to see the benefits of a long and healthy life.”
To date, HLI has developed a database of approximately 40,000 genomes and related physical trait data. The goal is to get to 200,000 in total so that the data can be operationalized by insurers and other parties.
"We continue to believe that genomics will play an increasingly important role across a variety of business sectors including insurance and look forward to working with MassMutual," says Cynthia Collins, HLI CEO.
