Corporate Wellness Blog

Studies show that roughly five percent of workforce drive about 80 percent of your health benefit costs.

No shocker here –  Smokers and obese personnel are the highest risk group for developing the sorts of chronic medical problems that send costs through the roof.

A small, but quickly growing number of corporations are taking desperate measures to avoid the costs associated with these employees.  The step can be broken down into three levels of aggressiveness and potential risk/reward.

Level one –  the business installs a wellness program in which non-smoking employees and those who commit to maintaining a healthful weight receive financial incentives that lower their share of monthly insurance premiums.

Level two –  the company disqualifies job candidates who smoke or are significantly overweight from hiring consideration. Alternatively, some firms require new hires to undergo a health risk appraisal as a condition of being hired.

Level three –  the business docks pay or fires employees who fail to control their lifestyle-related health risks. Example –  A organization called Clarian Health has sent notifications to employees that beginning in 2009, employees who smoke or chew tobacco are going to be charged $5 per paycheck.

Are these strategies legal? at level one, the answer is a certified yes. health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA)s non-discrimination rules permit such incentives under several conditions.

Wellness incentives walk a fine line as for health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA)s non-discrimination rules. It’s legal to reward personnel for wellness participation but its illegal to punish those who fail to improve their health.

Example – If an staff member follows a weight-loss program in good faith but fails to lose weight, you can’t withhold the incentive. Similarly, when an staff member fails repeated tries to quit tobacco use, you’re still legally obligated to give them another shot next year.

Likewise rememberthat, by law, the size of the reward or penalty under your wellness program cant exceed 20 percent of the total cost of coverage.

The other two are still largely uncharted waters in the courts. Employers considering these policies should proceed with extreme caution. Keep in mind that the question of “can you do it” (i.e., is it legal?) is different from “should you do it?” (i.e., is it good business?)