CVS presses workers for medical information
Privacy group decries invasive act
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 PrintEmail Comments (60)
By:
Christine McConville
A national data privacy group is seeing red over a new CVS policy that requires workers who use company health insurance to report their weight, and body fat and glucose levels to the insurer or pay a $600-a-year penalty.
This is an incredibly coercive and invasive thing to ask employees to do, said Patient Privacy Rights founder Dr. Deborah Peel, adding that mounting health care costs have made these policies increasingly common.
Rising health care costs are killing the economy, and businesses are terrified, Peel added. Now, were all in this terrible situation where employers are desperate to get rid of workers who have costly health conditions, like obesity and diabetes.
Rhode Island-based CVS Caremark, which has 200,000 employees, told all workers who use the company insurance plan to have a doctor determine their weight, height, body fat, blood pressure and glucose and fasting lipid levels by May 1.
The company has dubbed the request a health screening and wellness review so that colleagues know their key health metrics in order to take action to improve their numbers, if necessary.
CVS says it will pay for the weight, body fat and blood screenings.
But in exchange, workers must sign a form saying the screening is voluntary, and that the insurer can give test results to WebMD Health Services Group. The firm provides health management programs and benefit support to CVS.
If workers dont sign up, their medical coverage will jump by $50 a month.
Peel said the $600 noncompliance penalty shows the program isnt voluntary.
How is it voluntary if you are a low- or medium- wage person? she said.
CVS spokesman Michael DAngelis defended the policy, saying, in an email, Our benefits program is evolving to help our colleagues take more responsibility for improving their health and managing health-associated costs.
He said CVS bosses wont be able to access workers personal health records.
All personal health data is kept private by our wellness programs third party administrator and is never shared with CVS Caremark, DAngelis said.
Peel said workers should be wary. Theres no chain of custody for health data, she said, so theres no way to verify that they dont really look at it.
MIT health economics expert Jonathan Gruber said hes not sure where he stands on the effort.
There is an important line here between a valid method of incentivizing wellness versus discriminating against sick workers, but Im not sure where that line is, he said.
More On:
CVS
CVS Caremark
1622 177 googleplus10 reddit16
Christine McConville / Boston Herald
Privacy group decries invasive act
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 PrintEmail Comments (60)
By:
Christine McConville
A national data privacy group is seeing red over a new CVS policy that requires workers who use company health insurance to report their weight, and body fat and glucose levels to the insurer or pay a $600-a-year penalty.
This is an incredibly coercive and invasive thing to ask employees to do, said Patient Privacy Rights founder Dr. Deborah Peel, adding that mounting health care costs have made these policies increasingly common.
Rising health care costs are killing the economy, and businesses are terrified, Peel added. Now, were all in this terrible situation where employers are desperate to get rid of workers who have costly health conditions, like obesity and diabetes.
Rhode Island-based CVS Caremark, which has 200,000 employees, told all workers who use the company insurance plan to have a doctor determine their weight, height, body fat, blood pressure and glucose and fasting lipid levels by May 1.
The company has dubbed the request a health screening and wellness review so that colleagues know their key health metrics in order to take action to improve their numbers, if necessary.
CVS says it will pay for the weight, body fat and blood screenings.
But in exchange, workers must sign a form saying the screening is voluntary, and that the insurer can give test results to WebMD Health Services Group. The firm provides health management programs and benefit support to CVS.
If workers dont sign up, their medical coverage will jump by $50 a month.
Peel said the $600 noncompliance penalty shows the program isnt voluntary.
How is it voluntary if you are a low- or medium- wage person? she said.
CVS spokesman Michael DAngelis defended the policy, saying, in an email, Our benefits program is evolving to help our colleagues take more responsibility for improving their health and managing health-associated costs.
He said CVS bosses wont be able to access workers personal health records.
All personal health data is kept private by our wellness programs third party administrator and is never shared with CVS Caremark, DAngelis said.
Peel said workers should be wary. Theres no chain of custody for health data, she said, so theres no way to verify that they dont really look at it.
MIT health economics expert Jonathan Gruber said hes not sure where he stands on the effort.
There is an important line here between a valid method of incentivizing wellness versus discriminating against sick workers, but Im not sure where that line is, he said.
More On:
CVS
CVS Caremark
1622 177 googleplus10 reddit16
Christine McConville / Boston Herald
