EEOC: Obamacare ‘Workplace Wellness’ Programs Neither Voluntary Nor Legal

CNSNews.com ^ | December 2, 2014 | Barbara Hollingsworth

[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.

[Chickensoup]

As the fascists become more bold, you will have to submit to all sorts of indignities in order to qualify for the pricing they will force you to pay.

[Chickensoup]

Healthcare conglomerates are saying that invasive programs like forcing workers to report what they are ill with, are FOR THE GOOD OR SAFETY OF THE PATIENTS, which has been healthcare’s go to excuse to dismiss all sorts of indignities.

[Don W]

We have this new “EARL” (employee absence reporting line) system. When sick, we are to call this outside contractor, give them our name, address, SSN, employee #, department, shift start time, length we think we’ll be off, our supervisor’s extension, and a number we can be reached at (?).

This “EARL” then transfers us to the timekeeper/supervisor/co-ordinator’s desks, where all this information is taken down again by each of them.

They say it’s for statistical purposes.

In an aside, if you are off sick for more than 2 consecutive shifts, you are expected to get a doctor’s note before they will let you resume your duties. Can you define micro-managing control freaks?

[Chickensoup]

Ones who have you call the healthcare entity “wellness coordinator” and have one leave a message stating the category of illness ie hurt knee, cold, back problems.

[Bronzy]

Perhaps, but I am still here and working.

Sadly, my non-smoking mother died before receiving one Social Security payment as did my smoking step dad. Government won.

My grandparents fit right into the governments schedule. Grandpa died at 64 and grandma at 76. The government cut even on them.

There is a lot of Social Security monies out there not accounted for due to deaths before eligibility. The government has a lot of money.