Whoop, known for marketing performance wearables to athletes, is now targeting a much older population. The company was accepted into Medicare's ACCESS pilot, which lets traditional Medicare patients ages 65 and up receive a Whoop device, a 12-month app subscription, and clinician support at no charge. Whoop will serve patients with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and prediabetes, and Medicare will pay the company based on health outcomes rather than upfront device sales.
Chief medical officer Ami Bhatt, speaking at the STAT Summit, said the company's first priority is simplifying the app for older adults. Surveys suggest even Silent Generation members are willing to share health data with clinicians, but the interface must be easy to use. Whoop is working with the National Council on Aging and AARP to personalize the product around individual goals, rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all definition of healthy aging.
To receive full payment, Whoop must show it improved or controlled blood pressure, hemoglobin A1C, and LDL cholesterol in its Medicare population. Bhatt noted that Whoop has already demonstrated blood pressure reductions of five millimeters of mercury in some users. She also acknowledged that engagement alone is not enough, citing research on continuous glucose monitors that shows frequent use does not always translate to better outcomes.
Bhatt said the traditional health care system struggles to absorb continuous wearable data, recalling patients who printed binders of readings that were impossible to review in a 20-minute visit. She envisions Whoop eventually delivering contextualized reports that combine a patient's data, journal entries, and app coach interactions, giving clinicians a concise summary they can actually use. The company recently raised $575 million from investors including Mayo Clinic and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, and it resolved an FDA warning letter about its blood pressure-estimating feature earlier this year.