Punitive wellness programs

[firecat]

Penn State faculty are organizing a campaign against the university's new punitive wellness program, which reduces employees' compensation by $1200 per year unless they undergo medical testing and provide personal information to online data collector WebMD (including such information as whether they are having marriage problems or are planning to become pregnant).

http://pa-aaup.com/2013/07/30/the-penn-state-healthcare-mandate-and-a-call-for-civil-disobedience/

There is a change.org petition.
http://www.change.org/petitions/penn-state-president-rodney-a-erickson-benefits-office-and-trustees-stop-the-new-penn-state-wellness-program-and-its-surcharges

Here is another article about it.
http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/08/12/penn-state-to-faculty-were-doing-this-for-your-own-bad/

Comments

[wild_irises]

Oh, that sucks SO MUCH!

You might want to look at <a href="http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/09/10/obesity-and-the-ama-part-two/>this</a>, and maybe point them at it, since it has some serious pointers on the legal ways to get around this crap.

[firecat]

Thank you, that's really helpful!

[libskrat]

I have friends who work there. I am sideeyeing this SO HARD, and hoping the protest succeeds because I don't want other people's employers -- or mine, for that matter -- getting ideas.

[firecat]

They aren't the only ones; if you have a choice whether to shop at CVS pharmacy, you might be interested in their decision to do the same sort of thing. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/20/cvs-workers-insurance_n_2915006.html

[libskrat]

GAH. Fair to say I don't shop there any more.

[(Anonymous)]

I dearly hope that the campaign is successful and this program gets shut down.

Some of my friends are dealing with similar forms of discrimination and privacy violation at their workplaces. Legal precedent must be made to stop this kind of abuse.

-graymalkin

[firecat]

I hope so yes.

[silveradept]

Glad to hear that they're fighting back against this.

[libskrat]

A big NOPE to forced disclosure of intent to become pregnant.

[firecat]

Excellent!

[flarenut]

A lot of those questions are ones that employers can't lawfully ask. No doubt they're going to claim that there is a complete well between the data collection and the employer, and no doubt they're going to be shocked, shocked to find out that isn't true.

Evil and stupid, because they're giving the notion that it's a good idea to take care of yourself a bad name.

[libskrat]

Monetary penalty for "non-compliance" suspended. It's a start.

[firecat]

Oh good.

[cappyhead.livejournal.com]

Ugh. My company offers up to $600 per covered plan member that gets put in your health savings account if you get particular wellness check-ups and either meet their BMI goals, or lose a particular percentage of your body weight, or undergo a telephonic "coaching" series. So it's not punitive, but rather a "bonus", but I still don't like it. And at least we don't have to submit personal information to an outside vendor.

[firecat]

Ew!

[yarram.livejournal.com]

My employer is pushing a similar thing. I am complying only with the bits that I find personally useful. I am refusing all medical / blood tests that seek data already available in my medical files. (Cholesterol, etc.) My insurer has access to these in aggregate form, and as far as I can tell, they make no promise to keep my individual data confidential from my employer, which means they aren't getting anything I don't already consider public information.

[firecat]

Are you penalized for not complying?

[yarram.livejournal.com]

Yes. I don't get the discount. If I do not participate in the vendor's health awareness activities next year, I will have to continue paying a higher rate for health insurance coverage in 2015.