Also 400 Prozent mehr offene Stellenausschreibungen.

Vor zwei Tagen hieß es noch, dass Apple weniger Personal einstellt und heute das 400% mehr Personal gesucht wird.

Apple has been in talks with at least three private Medicare plans about subsidizing the Apple Watch for people over 65 to use as a health tracker, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The insurers are exploring ways to subsidize the cost of the device for those who can’t afford the $279 price tag, which is the starting cost of an older model. The latest version of the device, which includes the most extensive health features including fall detection and an electrocardiogram to measure the heart’s rhythm, retails for a minimum of $399, which many seniors could benefit from but can’t afford.

The talks have not resulted in any official deals just yet, the people said. Apple has paid a visit to several of the largest insurers in the market, as well as some smaller, venture-backed Medicare Advantage plans. The people declined to be named as the discussions are still private. Apple declined to comment.

Health experts say that seniors are an ideal market for the Apple Watch, which has introduced features that can be used by anyone, but are most beneficial to seniors, including fall detection and cardiac arrhythmia monitoring. It also makes sense as a business model for insurers, as seniors are a particularly lucrative market.

“It’s the segment of health insurance with the highest dollar revenue and margin per member,” explains Augustin Ruta, a health insurance consultant at A2 Strategy Group. Ruta also noted that Medicare members enrolled in these private plans tend to have lower churn rates, which gives insurers more of an incentive to invest in members’ long-term health outcomes.

A win for Apple, insurers and patients

About 19 million seniors, and growing, are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, which are private health plans that receive government payouts for providing services to seniors — about $10,000 per member, on average. Consulting firm PwC, the brand name for PricewaterhouseCoopers, expects the Medicare Advantage market to generate more than $350 billion in annual revenue by 2020, although the market is regulated to limit insurers’ profits.

The government payments provide more flexibility for insurers running Medicare Advantage plans to invest in new technologies, like the Apple Watch, if they have a demonstrated benefit.

Apple Watch might be pricier than other trackers, such as the Fitbit, but insurance executives say they’d work with Apple if the company can show that it helps its members detect potentially serious health problems before they require an expensive intervention.

“Avoiding one emergency room visit would more than pay for the device,” said Bob Sheehy, CEO of Bright Health, an insurance start-up with a Medicare Advantage plan, and the former CEO of United Healthcare.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC in an interview last week that health technology would be a major initiative for the company in the future.
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