Is anyone else getting “wellness questionnaires” from the higher ups where you work? My firm has started some sort of Wellness Committee, etc. in connection with our health care provider and wants all of us to fill out this lengthy questionnaire about our exercise, eating habits and other medical stuff.
I emailed them back that they aren’t entitled to this information, but I was curious is this wasn’t the prelude to our carriers starting to charge those of us who eat McDonald’s, drink beer, etc., more for our rates so that they can get onboard with Obamunism Health Care.
why would anyone answer those truthfully? Nope, no junk food. No sugar...exercise 5 days a week....sure, whatever you need to hear.
A couple of things could be going on. Incentives for Health Behaviors. They might be going to offer a break to those with a healthy lifestyle for health care. Or simply incentives to get more healthy is a much more accepted policy among employees. Like, we will do this for you if you walk 10000 miles a day. If you quit smoking or lose 20 pounds, etc.
They could be shopping around for a different insurance and it will be based on the overall health of their employees.
Or they could be just going to penalize those who smoke, or are overweight or never exercise. Or worse in California, they may fire you. We are a at will state. No reason needed although after that questionnaire you would have a reason to fight them. They could say things like we felt this employee was a risk yada,yada.
There is a really good program for companies that does depend on employees taking care of their health. It is a health insurance savings plan. A certain amount of money is placed on the card for general health, checkups etc. I can’t remember the total. But if not used that money can be rolled over the next year and the next and then you can also use at retirement as a savings. The incentive is to take care of your health and be prudent over your health care expenses. Then the companies have a catastrophic health plan over and above this savings plan for major illness. 20% in a insurance plan uses 80% of the coverage. I like the idea because far too many run to the ER for sniffles and it is about time they realize hospitals are not for colds. Their card would be empty the first visit.
Yes, my husband’s company started that a few years ago. You fill out the initial questionnaire but you have to appear at the company (or your spouse’s company) every year for a weigh-in, BMI measurement, cholesterol and blood sugar screening.
I refuse to attend those screenings. Since I am a diabetic and my husband has a rare disease that requires daily steroids we will always be in the “rusty nail” category. We both probably see doctors more than most people so we really do not need health screenings. Been there done that probably several times over. You are assigned points and your deductible is determined by your score.
You are given points even if you haven’t had a colonoscopy within 5 years even though the insurance doesn’t cover it and it’s over $3000. Pretty hard to pay for out of pocket especially when the employees are on half salary right now.
You have to keep up-to-date on all of your health screenings, pap smears, mammograms,etc. or you are penalized. They promote it as a health screening to detect undiagnosed problems to prevent major health costs down the road but it really is just a way to raise the out of pocket costs for the employees and the employer gets a break on what they pay.
We discovered that their cholesterol test magically added enough numbers to it so that we were bumped up from normal to abnormal. We submitted tests run by our own physicians that differed greatly from their score. Keep in mind, they are only doing finger stick tests. So it pays to submit your own.
The blood testing for diabetes is a joke. Anyone who already has diabetes has regular A1c blood tests that are more accurate. If you want to cheat, take your insulin, don’t eat and you’ll get a “normal” reading. What sense does that make? I get copies of all of my tests done by my own physician and send them in. They are more accurate anyway.
They also do not screen for drug and alcohol use. They don’t ask you if you practise safe sex nor if you wear your seat belt when in the car. They do ask you about smoking.
Since most of the employees are over 50 in this company it assures that we pay large out of pockets and deductibles. It keeps the rates down.
They asked very detailed questions about what you eat. We lied LOL! How are they going to prove it? They asked if we ate fast food for example, drank coffee, soft drinks.
You can refuse to go to the yearly screenings like I do but you will most likely be penalized by paying higher deductibles. It is very intrusive and just a taste of what is to come.