Employers' Wellness Rewards Now Come with Risks
Employers seeking to promote wellness in the workplace may have to rethink their rewards programs - or run the risk of breaking new federal rules protecting individuals' genetic information. The recently issued guidelines prohibit health plans and employers from offering any financial rewards to any worker for participating in a health risk assessment that requests information about their family medical history. The rules apply to group health insurance with plan years beginning on or after Dec. 7. (The Wall Street Journal) Please note that these rules are not yet final. Employers and insurers have until Jan. 5 to submit comments, which means they could yet be revised. As always, BSG will be monitoring developments.
EEOC Releases Proposed Regulations Amending the Current Americans with Disabilities Act Regulations
October 2, 2009 - Michael Best & Friedrich LLP
A year ago, Congress passed and George W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 ("ADAAA"), which of course amended the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). On September 23, 2009, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") took a step towards fulfilling the Congressional mandate imposed by the ADAAA when it released proposed regulations interpreting the ADA as amended by the ADAAA. The proposed revisions to the previously existing ADA regulations introduce several changes. Of particular importance, the proposed regulations clarify the definition of the term "substantially limits." This client alert addresses the high points of the proposed regulatory changes and provides a brief analysis of the likely effect of such changes.
Tweeting Health Benefits ... in 140 Characters or Fewer
October 26, 2009 - Workforce Management
To many health care benefits managers, the social networking site Twitter seems like navel-gazing blather.
But that's how millions of people get their information these days, communicating using 140 characters or fewer (like this sentence does).
Ikea looked at the Twitter phenomenon and said: If you want your employees to make good health care decisions, meet them where they're at. Thirty-six percent of Ikea's employees are millennials. No one expected them to read packets of information sent through snail mail. So on April 8, at 7 a.m., Ikea became one of the first companies to communicate the details of their health plans on Twitter.
