Not every wellness plan is good. But a company cannot force a employee to participate in a wellness program. Though the question of whether or not participation is truly voluntary is a legitimate question given the monetary cost of not participating.
So do you want to help pay for other’s medical problems through private insurance premiums or through taxes funding Medicare? Doesn’t Medicare taxes come directly out of your pocket?
I didn’t post that anyone complained to their bosses. You made that up. The health insurance company which designs and implements a wellness program is not the employee’s boss, for one thing. They have an idea for how to encourage healthier behaviors and therefore control costs at the same time as rewarding the members (employees of company X) who are unhappy with paying the same premiums as coworkers who they perceive as having less healthy habits, and they marketed that to the employer. If your former employer contracted with a company that sent out emails with cartoon poop, that’s on them.
The transfer of any personal health information without a release from the patient is a HIPAA violation and the violator will be pounded with fines. Big fines, not jaywalking citations.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a medical facility or a provider or if you simply hold health-related records without providing any direct services. If that info gets into the wild, even accidentally, there will be a big price to pay.
We have to go through annoying training several times per year about the many ways in which HIPAA can be violated. We are not a medical facility, but we do house transactions for our clients and we host a call center for members who want to enroll in a program or who have questions about existing transactions.
As to wellness programs, most employers have a firewall between the employer and the wellness program, and the wellness program is usually administered by a third party, not the employer. If that’s not the case, I’d be very careful. Still, some employers give a lot of latitude to their wellness programs, and they can be quite intrusive.
If you are signing any medical release forms, please read them carefully. You need to know who, exactly, will get to see your personal health information, both immediately and eventually.
I have a low opinion of wellness programs, but can hardly blame people for making use of discounts, no matter how ill-conceived. Health insurance is expensive and your employer knows that you will likely jump on a discount for something that appears harmless.
For a single person like me who does not have any health problems, it’s not worth the $30 every 2 weeks. I’ll use it for the tax deduction and forego the time and expense of unnecessary trips to labs or other testing facilities. It’s probably worth it for people who are hammered by the premiums for family coverage, which is not cheap.
I refuse my employer’s wellness program because they provide no real medical value while being simultaneously intrusive. They will sometimes have you jumping through arbitrary and unproductive hoops. I don’t give that kind of power over to other people, but realize that different people have different motivations and different tolerances.
You said wellness programs were a response to employees complaining that they shouldn’t have to pay the same premiums as Chuck from Accounts Payable who smokes like a chimney.
Maybe these complaints weren’t so exact and personal as actually turning in specific people with bad habits, but it still shows a disgusting degree of cheap pettiness. You’re bitching that Chuck should pay ten dollars more a month than you because of his cigarettes? Please.
I think he’s bitching that he shouldn’t have to spend $10 more a month because of Chuck’s cigarettes. What Chuck spends is Chuck’s business.
Again, you’re assuming things that I never once said. Where did I, personally, give any opinion on the wellness programs at all, let alone bitch about anyone else’s habits?
You seem to have a need to read ill intent into a lot of situations. I was perfectly neutral and factual here, and yet you’ve continued to attribute intent and attitude to my words that is not there.
I want the people who have made deliberate choices that raise their healthcare costs to pay for those choices instead of foisting the bill off on other people, regardless of whether they’re on Medicare or private insurance. With freedom comes responsibility.
Direct medical costs for smoking-related illnesses now exceed $130 billion a year in the US (cite); other sources suggest the figure is closer to $160-170 billion. Somebody has to pay this; why shouldn’t Chuck in Accounts Payable who smokes like a chimney pay a greater share than Yvonne in Receivables who has never smoked a day in her life?
Fine, you never felt the slightest inclination to complain about your health premiums compared to what others with bad health habits had to pay. You were only pointing out why wellness programs exist.
My apologies for any angst I might have caused.
C’mon Chuck, let’s go out for a beer.
Me and Chuck are going out fot a beer. Why don’t you and Yvonne go eat some carrots or something?
I actually never have complained about it. I used to work adjacent to my job’s benefits department and I had knowledge to contribute to the how and why of wellness programs.
I do find you deeply unpleasant, I have to say.
Yeah, well, freedom fighters have to be unpleasant sometimes.
Freedom fighters usually respond when someone calls them out on their.mistakes and generally avoid making shit up wholesale, but you do you.
Hmph. See if I ever apologize to you ever again.
Aw, now see what you did? You made Chuck cry. Now they’re sending him for depression counselling, and I’m missing out on my beer.
Well, Chuck’s in luck! The wellness program has just added a virtual coach, so he can participate from the bar, on his mobile device.
Define “smokers”. I never know how to answer, so when asked if I’m a “smoker” I always answer, “I do not use tobacco in any form”.
What, wellness programs at a bar??? That’s almost as invasive as cartoon turd surveys.
Moderator Note
lorene and Two Many Cats, stop the snipping.
This is IMHO so both of you are free to express your opinions about the topic, but that doesn’t mean you get to snip at each other. Restrict your opinions to the actual topic at hand and dial the snippiness way back.
Chuck is wondering where the hell everybody went.
Smoke break.