ŌURA, a health intelligence platform and maker of the world’s smallest smart ring, released its 2026 Annual Healthcare Report. Earlier Insights, More Informed Care: Oura’s Impact Across Payer Priorities examines how payers and health plans can build on continuous, personalized health insights to strengthen member engagement and extend support beyond traditional healthcare visits.

Members wear Oura Ring an average of 23.5 hours a day, and 85% stay with Oura for a year. That sustained engagement gives members a continuous view of their personal patterns and, with their consent, can give plans early signals to inform care management programs and connect members to screening and care before needs escalate into more costly interventions.

“Members choose Oura to better understand their bodies and make informed decisions about their health,” said Ricky Bloomfield, MD, chief medical officer of Oura. “Continuous health information is most useful when it serves a clear, credible purpose for members and their care teams. An insight may help someone reflect on a daily habit, bring a question to their clinician, or connect with relevant support. For health plans, it can create a more connected way to support members between occasional touchpoints. Our role is to make that information understandable, work with plans on appropriate next steps, and build the evidence to evaluate its impact.”

The report examines how payers can partner with Oura across:

  • Sleep health: Connecting member-shared overnight breathing insights with targeted partner outreach for validated sleep apnea risk screening and physician evaluation.
  • Metabolic health: Giving members a clearer view of how sleep, activity, and nutrition interact, and a way to track their GLP-1 experience and bring it to their clinician.
  • Women’s health: Providing personalized insights across reproductive health, pregnancy, and menopause to help members understand changes throughout their lives and inform conversations with clinicians.
  • Cardiovascular health: Helping members understand patterns in heart rate, sleep, activity, and recovery, track overnight dips in blood pressure, and estimate cardiovascular age to complement preventive care and existing cardiovascular programs.

The report comes as health plans and employers face mounting pressure to control costs. Total health benefit cost per employee is projected to rise 8.2% in 2027, the highest increase since 2003, and 59% of employers plan cost-cutting changes to health benefits, including higher deductibles that can increase members’ out-of-pocket costs. As plans look for ways to manage spending without shifting more of the burden onto members, the report explores where earlier visibility could matter most. Sleep apnea affects about 30 million people in the U.S., roughly 80% of them undiagnosed, and research cited in the report shows that treating it reduces annual medical costs from $6,336 to $2,105 per patient.

“Health plans are looking for ways to sustain member engagement, offer clear next steps, and build evidence they can share with stakeholders,” said Jason Oberfest, VP of health partnerships at Oura. “Wearables have reached an inflection point. The opportunity is no longer simply to offer another device, but to make continuous wellness insights a meaningful part of how plans engage and support their populations. Oura gives members a tool they choose to use and gives plans a way to extend support beyond occasional touchpoints. Plans can start with a covered benefit and add programs like screening and care support as their priorities and infrastructure allow.”

The report also outlines flexible partnership models for health plans at different stages of implementation. These range from offering Oura Ring and Oura Membership as a covered or subsidized wellness benefit to incorporating consent-based insights into targeted screening, care plan and therapy support, and specialty care platforms. Each approach can be tailored to a plan’s member population, objectives, and existing infrastructure.

Read Earlier Insights, More Informed Care: Oura’s Impact Across Payer Priorities. To learn more about health plan partnerships, visit Oura for Health Plans and Payers.

About ŌURA

ŌURA is a health intelligence platform designed to transform how people understand and manage their health in everyday life. Oura’s platform is anchored by Oura Ring, the world’s leading smart ring that empowers you to live healthier, longer. Oura supports millions of members worldwide across sleep, activity, stress, readiness, women’s health, metabolic health, and heart health. Oura Ring is purpose-built to leverage the finger’s unique physiological advantages for photoplethysmography (PPG) measurement, producing a stronger signal than wrist-based wearables. The core metrics of the lightweight Oura Ring are scientifically validated against gold standards and the ring tracks 50+ health metrics continuously, empowering both individuals and thousands of research teams, healthcare providers, sports teams, and organizations. Trusted by an ecosystem of more than 1,200 partners, Oura is advancing the future of preventative health with privacy and security at the forefront.

Founded in Finland in 2013, Oura is headquartered in San Francisco with E.U. headquarters in Oulu, Finland.

Oura Ring is not a medical device and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, monitor, or prevent medical conditions or illnesses.

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