A friend of mine recently forwarded to me this email she received from the HR department at her job. The employer shall, of course, be nameless.
It reads, in part, as follows (this is a paraphrase):
As you know, health care costs continue to rise. Our company believes controlling these costs is a shared responsibility. We provide health care benefits and participants help prevent accidents and illnesses through healthy living and using health care services wisely...
We have identified a personal health assessment survey tool that we are making available to everyone. By completing the survey, you’ll gain more insight into your current health status, which may help you live a healthier life...it requires a visit to the...Web site where you answer a series of questions about your current health status...Based on your responses, the program identifies your personal health risks, helps you learn about healthy habits and calculates your “lifestyle score” based on how you compare to others of your same age and gender. You can return to this site to update your personal survey and track your personal health goals...
Your participation is voluntary; your input and personal results will be kept confidential. However, if you report conditions known to be controllable health risks, you will receive a confidential e-mail with helpful tips, guidance and information from a specially trained online health care coach...
...HR will receive a management report summarizing various health risk factors reported by all participants...Only aggregate totals will be reported, not individual health information...This will allow HR to design and offer targeted health and wellness programs where our results could be better and help us measure our progress. We will share a summary of these overall results with everyone. We hope to use state-of-the-art technology to achieve a positive impact on rising health care costs.
We encourage everyone to participate between now and (deadline), even if you are already in the best of health...As an added incentive, the name of every employee who participates will be placed in a drawing to win a (prize)...
She sent it to me to look at because it raised her suspicions. She wonders if it isn't her company's sneaky back-door way of trying to figure out which employees have medical issues so that they can be targeted for elimination in some secret way they will never find out about. I mean, the message says HR will receive only an aggregate report, but how does she know that's true? In short, the privacy of everyone's medical records may be protected by HIPAA, but if employees "volunteer" their medical information by filling out a survey ostensibly designed to "help" them manage their health better, is that a loophole employers can use (especially if they get you to sign some legal gobbledygook you don't realize is designed to legalize your willing surrender of privacy) to find out who has chronic illnesses or health issues without doing anything illegal, and find some "reason" to cut them off the payroll? Should she respond?
We are curious to know what everyone thinks.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
