As the cost of health insurance and medical care continues to rise, Apple has a unique solution to combat the increased expenses. Subsidiary company AC Wellness has plans to build two clinics in Santa Clara, California. The first will be inside of the Apple Park spaceship with the other slightly north of Cupertino headquarters.
Only Apple employees and immediate family members will be eligible for treatment at the new medical facilities. Based on job postings for the new clinics, services are expected to focus on healthy lifestyle choices and diet counseling in addition to traditional primary care.
Apple has already made investments into healthcare with its ResearchKit and HealthKit tools to track personal health. The Apple Watch is still being tested to see how many different medical conditions can be detected and prevented early on and shows surprising levels of accuracy. Increasing the sample size of patients using the Apple Watch could help accelerate the development of improved monitoring tools.
With over 120,000 employees, Apple has a large number of people in need of health insurance and medical care. Bringing in staff to offer medical services in-house could become a new trend among large corporations as a way to reduce expenses. Amazon recently has formed a partnership with J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway to explore private medical care options.
For Apple, offering medical care is more than just a perk for employees. It is a research investment that could help it build brand reputation in the medical industry for wearables, and in turn, promote its entire ecosystem of products to large businesses.