*By Conor White*
John Hancock Insurance wants its customers living long, healthy lives, but until now the company's "Vitality" program had been neglecting an important part of that formula.
"Who should care more about you living a long healthy life than your life insurance company?" asked Brooks Tingle, president and CEO of John Hancock Insurance. "So when we came out with the program, it really started by emphasizing physical activity, then we added some nutritional elements, preventative screenings, but we realized we were missing a really important pillar, which is mental health."
To that end, John Hancock Vitality life insurance is introducing "HealthyMind", a new initiative encouraging customers to improve their mental health. In an interview Monday on Cheddar, Tingle explained the company's approach.
"We're starting, really, with what we call 'mindfulness'," said Tingle, "with meditation being the best example of that. We're also offering incentives and rewards for a good night's sleep."
Smartphone apps and wearable devices will integrate with "HealthyMind" so users can keep track of their statistics and vitals. The service also includes a free one-year subscription to Headspace, a digital service providing guided meditation sessions and mindfulness training. "HealthyMind" is being rolled out after repeated requests from customers, said Tingle.
"We have a lot of Vitality customers now," he said. "We've been offering this for three years now, and we regularly survey our customers to ask what's missing, what would you like to see added, and meditation support was actually the No. 1 request."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/signing-off-on-healthier-customers).
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