Posted on 12/03/2014 7:04:56 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(CNSNews.com) – The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed corporations to reduce their health care costs by rewarding employees for voluntarily participating in workplace “wellness” programs to help them lose weight or stop smoking.
But now three of those programs are the target of discrimination lawsuits by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which says they are neither voluntary nor legal.
EEOC recently filed its third wellness lawsuit, claiming that Honeywell International, Inc.’s ACA-approved wellness program violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Honeywell recently informed employees and their spouses who were enrolled in the company’s health benefits plan that they would have to undergo biometric testing, including a blood draw, to be screened for smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and other conditions. The information would then be used to set “goals” to reduce their medical risk factors.
But employees who refused to take the biometric tests would be penalized up to $4,000 in lost benefits and additional surcharges.
According to the EEOC complaint, “the proposed medical testing is not voluntary, and therefore violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The testing imposes penalties on employees whose spouses do not provide their medical information, and therefore violates the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.”
Honeywell’s biometric testing is “not voluntary,” nor is it “intended to determine whether the employee can perform the essential functions of their jobs or pose a direct threat to the health or safety of themselves or others,” the EEOC noted, adding that there is “no remedy for unwarranted, unwanted and unlawful medical examinations.” (See eeoc-v.-honeywell.pdf)
EEOC also accused Flambeau Inc., a plastics manufacturing firm in Wisconsin, of violating the ADA by cancelling the health insurance of an employee who refused to submit to biometric testing and charging him the entire premium amount while employees who had the tests done only had to pay 25 percent.
In August, EEOC filed a similar lawsuit against Orion Energy System for firing an employee who objected to the company’s “voluntary” wellness program.
“Having to choose between responding to medical exams and inquiries -- which are not job-related -- in a wellness program, on the one hand, or being fired, on the other hand, is no choice at all," said EEOC regional attorney John Hendrickson.
In a Nov. 14th letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Business Roundtable president John Engler expressed his “strong disappointment” with the EEOC for taking “actions against large employers who are complying with the requirements” of Obamacare.
“It is a shameful day when well-intentioned and well-informed reliance on regulations, driven by the good will of employers to offer positive, innovative programs to their employees, can result in litigation,” Engler wrote on behalf of Business Roundtable members, who are CEOs of some of the largest companies in the U.S. and provide employer-based insurance coverage for over 40 million Americans.
Although workplace wellness programs were designed to reduce health care costs for employers by helping employees adopt healthier lifestyles, they do not appear to be catching on.
More than 85 percent of large companies with 1,000 or more employees offer a workplace wellness program, but only 60 percent of their workers are aware of it, and only 24 percent choose to participate in it, according to Gallup.
Sir, if I could track you down, I would make you pay for this completely ruined laptop :-)
It is a shameful day when well-intentioned and well-informed reliance on regulations, driven by the good will of employers to offer positive, innovative programs to their employees, can result in litigation,” Engler wrote on behalf of Business Roundtable....
Hey, you Fascist POS.
You do not have the right to force people to buy a product they may not ever use and oay for Shiite that is against their religious conscience.
Further, your “Wellness” pogrom is discriminatory and unfairly penalizes people for using a perfectly legal and taxed product.
Speaking of taxed: Is your tax, under Justice Roberts definition, superior to all other taxed and non mandated but still, very stratified markets of all other products produced, sold and consumed or simply left to expire, having never been used?
Say it...”My tax is superior to all other products and services....”
I know you can...
A different take on that,if asked about smoking bring up a Homosexual lifestyle asking if that would be more harmful?
Would that end the questioning?
“If it is truly voluntary, with no consequences other than higher insurance premiums.”
Ha ha, you must be dreaming, or living in a strange (but apparently much better) parallel universe.
Try working *IN* the healthcare system. If I don’t get a flu shot, I’m not allowed near any patients without a mask and gloves. When I *GET* the flu shot, I am laid up sick for 3-5 days. Every time.
When the flu shot was voluntary, I was injected my first few years, but noticed I got sick. My arm would swell slightly, bruising and angry red patches, etc. I stopped getting it, and never booked a day off for the following 8 years. The powers that be decided it was going to be “restricted voluntary”, and now I get sick every year after the shot. Hooray.
“I’m just really worried that my CO2 output (ie. breathing) might kill all the children... “
There are plenty of liberals who would just love to help you stop doing this in order to save the Earth.
“The smokers just did their jobs and felt happy.”
Yes but 50 years ago, most of them dropped dead before they retired from a heart attack (very inexpensive).
Good for you, Veto! I'm a very healthy non-nut. My habits are despicable to any health-nut. My healthcare costs are non-existent, were it not for the socialists taking money from me in the name of "insurance" [socialization of risk] to cover the costs of ____ __ ___ _____ (fill in the blanks). I am not responsible for their crap. That insurance money confiscated from me over my lifetime for all things "insured", would be a heckuva lot of money for my family should I suddenly kick the bucket. I've worked very hard (and am still working very hard) for these socialists to take it…hoping that I die before one dime is paid back. Quite the scam.
Perhaps nanzi pelousy was right. Now that the o-care bill has passed we ARE finding out what’s in it and its full of contra-legal bull Shiite.
Thanks for the ping!
But they're not. If they were "offering" it, then that would be a plus. They're not "offering" it, they're punishing you for not taking it.
You know if they really want to do these types of programs that’s the way to do it. Totally voluntary and maybe a dollar reward to put towards your premiums if you want.
But then that wouldn’t fit into their fascist goals.
They are called value added benefits. They include the checks, some gyms give discounts, other health oriented businesses give discounts. The insurance company cannot use the word “perk” because that implies it is part of the plan.
The health screenings and biometrics are invasive and can be shaming. But, they claim to be voluntary (the company my sister works for). 10% is an incentive so, she does it. She agrees that it is coercion, but....
I’m a health nut, also.....BUT, when my husbands corp insurance gave a discount if we took a “health survey”....it came back and told ME....my BMI was too high, (I am more muscular than a lot of women) and I drank too much red wine (1 glass a day)....sorry....keep the GOVERNMENT out of health care is the best policy.
Ramble much?
My company started these wellness programs 3 years ago. For the last two years the “free” biometric screening has been “offered”, but if you don’t partake you get a surcharge to the next year’s insurance. $600 this year, up from I think $300 last year.
You can advise, teach, etc - but you have no right to FORCE - that’s the operative word.
If you don’t understand that, what the H E double L are you doing here?
and I am
LOL
; )
I also have to be tested for my husband’s insurance. They have a list of items that if I don’t pass, say I have high cholesterol, our insurance goes up.
One glass of red wine is too much? How idiotic is that?
The BMI thingy is a little strange too. I’m staying under the limit, but just, because if I lose more weight, my face will wrinkle and sag….gotta have a little FAT.
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