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My employer tells us it's "ok to lie" to get health insurance discount (vanity).

Posted on 09/04/2011 10:30:39 PM PDT by Catmom

During our last contract negotiations at a Seattle area hospital, our employer told union reps (SEIU) that all employees covered by the hospital's health insurance plans would be required to join a "wellness program" or start having a portion of their premiums deducted from their paychecks. They told us they had contracted with an outside vendor to manage this "program".

The program is focused on weight loss and requires all employees who participate to answer quarterly emails where they give their height and weight. Many of my coworkers ARE overweight and took exception to this.

The employer told us this program had become necessary to contain health care costs and enabled them to give us a better deal on health insurance than any other hospital in the area. We were also told that the program requires minimal participation beyond the quarterly email responses. In fact, the director of Human Resources actually told union members it would be okay for employees to provide false responses to the emails just so long as they participated. Employees who choose to opt out will have 20% of their premiums deducted from their paychecks.

Is this where Obamacare has gotten us? Employers who tell their workers to lie to outside vendors so they can "get us a good deal" on a health insurance plan?

Needless to say. I'm going to opt out on this. The "wellness program" is a sham and I refuse to lie to anyone to "get a great deal".

And I'll bet this "wellness program" knows employees do this, too. They're just in it to make bucks off the situation employers find themselves in.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: healthinsurance; obamacare; seiu; vanity
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To: listenhillary; dangerdoc
Here's dangerdoc's post....

I gained and lost a thousand pounds. Unfortunately, I ended up exactly where I started. My biggest victory was losing about 80 pounds over two weeks

I said he / she has other issues.....

I think my point is sound.

If I missed some obvious or obscure point up thread...I'm sorry.

Losing 80 pounds in two weeks...isn't healthy or normal. Something is out of whack there.

Enough said........

41 posted on 09/06/2011 6:01:53 PM PDT by Osage Orange (Marine Sniper - "You can run, but you'll just die tired!")
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To: Osage Orange

See post 6 and 36. I think there us a relationship between the two posts.


42 posted on 09/06/2011 6:08:55 PM PDT by listenhillary (Look your representatives in the eye and ask if they intend to pay off the debt. They will look away)
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To: listenhillary
I read both posts in context.........

I've not changed my mind.

43 posted on 09/06/2011 6:23:33 PM PDT by Osage Orange (Marine Sniper - "You can run, but you'll just die tired!")
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To: Osage Orange

Do you think it is possible to lose a thousand pounds?


44 posted on 09/06/2011 6:26:00 PM PDT by listenhillary (Look your representatives in the eye and ask if they intend to pay off the debt. They will look away)
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To: Osage Orange; dangerdoc

Hello? The good doctor was saying he/she was filling the required forms out with BS data, and that no one was concerned about the health of the patient.

Sarcasm and BS don’t always translate well in print.


45 posted on 09/06/2011 6:27:04 PM PDT by Semper911 (When you want to rob Peter to pay Paul, you'll always have the support of Paul.)
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To: Osage Orange

We were required to keep the computer log to get a discount on our health insurance. I was frustrated by the requirement and also curious to see if anybody actually paid attention. I entered more impossible numbers every week to see if it would trip an alarm to notify me that I had a problem.

Nope, it happily logged all my gains and losses and gave me a yearly summary showing me that for the year I had no change in weight.

The whole program was as useless as I assumed it was and the whole point was to create a program so tedious that an average person would get bored and quit, losing their discount on the premiums. If it weren’t for the experiment, the fun of watching the graph swing wildly and the hilarious computer generated encouragement I would get to keep working when I gained 40 pounds or congratulations when I lost a hundred pounds, I would have never made it through the year.

This year, I have to download a motivational .pdf every week to get my discount.

I’m sorry my post confused you, I was responding to the title, “ok to lie” to get health insurance discount. By the time you got my post, the thread had veered away from the title a bit.

In case you were actually worried, my weight never varied more than a few pounds over the entire year.


46 posted on 09/06/2011 6:29:58 PM PDT by dangerdoc (see post #6)
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To: Semper911

I definitely need to work on my delivery.

I thought the entire thing was hilarious, I think my wife may have actually used the word juvenile.


47 posted on 09/06/2011 6:32:12 PM PDT by dangerdoc (see post #6)
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To: dangerdoc
I definitely need to work on my delivery.

Your delivery is great -- no need to change a thing,

It came through loud and clear on this end, and yes, hilarious.

48 posted on 09/06/2011 6:34:33 PM PDT by Semper911 (When you want to rob Peter to pay Paul, you'll always have the support of Paul.)
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To: MayflowerMadam

“I learned there were other issues, as a big investigation began soon after.”

Years ago I was told by my manager to lie on my timesheet that I had worked on some government contract they had. He tried to give some excuse of “It’s a lump sum contract so it’s not like stealing, but we need to show some more hours spent. And you haven’t been billable, so that will help you keep your job.”

I didn’t do it. A few years later (I had left them) and they were in the news for fraud and stuff on the their government contracts. Yep - this kind of stuff is often just the tip of the iceberg.


49 posted on 09/06/2011 6:36:25 PM PDT by 21twelve (Obama Recreating the New Deal: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts)
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To: Osage Orange

Was your post correctly directed to me? Not pertinent to anything I’ve posted that I can tell.


50 posted on 09/07/2011 4:34:59 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam ("I know that God's tomorrow will be better than today!" A. H. Ackley)
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To: dangerdoc
ROFLOL!!...

That's what happens when I don't read the whole thread....Frankly I thought you probably meant 100 lbs..not 1000 lbs.

Okay...the jokes on me!!

Not the first time...

51 posted on 09/07/2011 7:29:49 AM PDT by Osage Orange (Marine Sniper - "You can run, but you'll just die tired!")
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To: MayflowerMadam

I was giving typical replies, comments...etc...From a typical H.R. person....


52 posted on 09/07/2011 7:31:38 AM PDT by Osage Orange (Marine Sniper - "You can run, but you'll just die tired!")
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