Free yoga classes! Lower health insurance premiums! Discounts and cash! And all you have to do is participate in your workplace wellness program! Good deal, right?
In theory, it makes sense to use incentives to encourage employees to improve their health. But in practice, many of these “voluntary” programs are discriminatory and can be especially dangerous to those affected by eating disorders.
Workplaces across the country have voluntary incentive programs in place to encourage health and wellness among their employees. These incentives usually include things like gift cards or gym membership discounts that are doled out after an employee has participated in a workplace wellness program, sometimes with the requirement that they disclose personal medical information in a questionnaire. But workplace wellness programs don’t just reward employees who participate; they can also punish employees who don’t participate. There’s an increasing trend of tying these programs to health insurance benefits, with penalties that can mean that the employee ends up paying more money for their health insurance. Additionally, these programs aren’t necessarily just harmless ways to encourage people to be healthier, they could also include office-wide, Biggest Loser-style group weight loss programs that can be triggering for people who struggle with disordered eating.
Penalizing people with hefty costs for opting out of these programs is less than fair. It’s also a violation of The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which expressly prohibits employer discrimination against individuals with disabilities. Under the rules of the ADA, employers cannot require employee participation in workplace wellness programs, penalize employees who opt out or collect personal medical information on a non-voluntary basis.
But these important protections are now at risk when it comes to employer wellness programs that are part of group health insurance plans. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has proposed a rule change in an attempt to clarify how this title applies to certain employer wellness programs, including incentivized workplace weight loss programs. In order to sidestep the ADA regulations, the EEOC has proposed that a program with incentives up to 30% of the cost of an employee’s health coverage be defined as “voluntary.”
Allowing these “voluntary” programs to be incentivized (in effect penalizing employees for non-participation) is an extremely dangerous action for the eating disorders community. If this proposed rule change goes into effect, an individual suffering with an eating disorder could be penalized by their employer for refusing to participate in a biometric screening or weight loss program. The penalty may go up to 30% of the total costs of the employee’s insurance, meaning that the employee may end up paying a larger percentage of their health care costs, while the employer pays less.
The National Eating Disorders Association is alarmed by this possibility, and we encourage you to use your voices to help stop this proposal from becoming a reality! You can help educate the EEOC about the harmful consequences of these wellness programs. Submit your comments here by June 19, 2015!
For more about how the EEOC proposed changes will affect the eating disorders community, check out this post from our allies at the Binge Eating Disorder Association.
