CVS Pharmacy Wants Workers’ Health Information, or They’ll Pay a Fine/here it starts...
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A new policy by CVS Pharmacy requires every one of its nearly 200,000 employees who use its health plan to submit their weight, body fat, glucose levels and other vitals or pay a monthly fine.
Employees who agree to this testing will see no change in their health insurance rates, but those who refuse will have to pay an extra $50 per month — or $600 per year — for the company’s health insurance program. All employees have until May 1, 2014, to make an appointment with a doctor and record their vitals.
“The approach they’re taking is based on the assumption that somehow these people need a whip, they need to be penalized in order to make themselves healthy,” Patient Privacy Rights founder Dr. Deborah Peel said.
Critics are calling the policy coercion, and worrying that CVS or any other company might start firing sick workers.
“It’s technology-enhanced discrimination on steroids,” Peel said.
The policy change was introduced to employees in a memo highlighting the change in the health insurance plan.
CVS, which is based in Rhode Island, said the health screening was voluntary and the company would never see the test results. In an email to ABC News, CVS explained that its “benefits program is evolving to help our colleagues take more responsibility for improving their health and managing health-associated costs.
“The goal of these kinds of programs is to end up with a healthier work force. If your employees are healthy they’re going to work better and they’re going to cost the employer a lot less money,” ABC News’ chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser said.
CVS insists that the use of health screenings by employer-sponsored health plans is a common practice. A quick search of the Internet shows many websites and message boards filled with questions from families asking if similar programs and policies are legal.
Brad Seff, a former Broward County, Fla., employee, learned the hard way that it is legal, according to one court. Seff sued the county in April 2011 after it charged him an extra $40 per month for health insurance after he refused health screenings.
In the suit, Seff said the wellness program violated the Americans With Disabilities Act because the county was making medical inquires of its employees. Seff lost his suit.
“I’m so disgusted. I moved. I left the state,” Seff told ABC News by phone.
I don't believe for a second that CVS or any business wouldn't try to look at all of that info just sitting there. Might as well trust the wolf to guard from foxes
There have always been companies that have required a physical of some sort before hiring a person, just as there have been those that don't. The first job I had, they required a physical before being hired and that was back about 1966 - 1967
In HR, we do NOT see results of the tests...we are only able to see "yes they have had their blood draw" or "no they have not had their blood draw". We don't get the results, so no employment decisions are made based on employee health. The only negative consequence is being removed from the medical plan if you refuse to have blood drawn. Simple.
Quoting Veni.Vidi.Vici.:It isn't any different than getting insurance that isn't provided by an employer. Our whole family had to have physicals and blood work when we purchased our own health insurance.
Well, as much as it pains me to say this, if businesses have no choice but to provide insurance, they should also have the right to fine those that refuse to help keep costs low.
I'm pretty sure my dad has to get a yearly physical for his insurance.
My DH gets a physical for an insurance deduction and so does my mom.
Quoting Veni.Vidi.Vici.:
Quoting DSamuels:
Where I work you get a discount, it was $250 a year, on your premium if you complete a questionnaire and get a screening. They brought nurses in to take the blood, etc. I don't use their insurance since I'm part time and we have it through hubby's employment.we get a $1200 discount for providing the questionaire and getting regular physicals and allowing the insurer access to pur medical findings. We haven't been asked to provide blood or UA for at least a year.
Very similar to us!
This isn't a new thing. Many companies have been doing this quietly for some time now. I remember my prior company starting this over 5 years ago.
Quoting furbabymum:I'm pretty sure my dad has to get a yearly physical for his insurance.
My DH gets a physical for an insurance deduction and so does my mom.
You don't think having crappy health is a sufficient penalty?
Or, maybe the other way 'round: you don't think having good health is a sufficient reward?
Quoting lga1965:People in poor health who have bad habits use their health care more often and that results in higher health care insurance premiums for everyone. So, it makes sense that the unhealthy ones pay a penalty if they don't care to improve their health. And who would deliberately continue to harm their own health by ignoring the widom and knowledge of health professionals? Its not smart and self destructive. In this article, CVS says it is going to keep the information confidential.
If it helps people why not gather the information? I wouldn't mind.
Holder to investigate....Holder
- gammie
on Mar. 20, 2013 at 9:37 AM