I have a few posts in the queue about the Affordable Care Act and how it’s been faring. In particular, how the actions of those that detest the act have made things more intolerable. But, today, I will be discussing how companies have been subverting the act for their own purposes.
First, we need to recognize that bigger corporations have been seeking ways to screw their employees. Oh, excuse me, to shift more costs onto them, so they have more money to pay the excessive salaries they have been awarding their executives.
One of the ways they’ve been doing this is to force the employee to pay more of its own health care bills. They also have been looking at ways to fire employees who cost them more money for health care. As an example, let’s consider what Honeywell has been doing.
They’ve demanded that employees provide their weight, cholesterol levels, and a slew of other health care (sexual activity, as well) facts to corporate. If they don’t yield this data, the employee is forced to shell out $ 2250 more a year in health care. Unless they are married- and then the penalty is $ 4000. This has been the case for a few years now- but they did lower the penalty for refusing to participate in their wellness program to $ 1500. But, the Federal regulations stipulate that wellness programs are to be voluntary. I don’t know about you- but a penalty of $ 1500 for NOT participating in a wellness program hardly sounds voluntary to me.
Honeywell is not alone in this chicanery. Many large employers (let’s keep this to those with 500 or more employees for now) demand their employees be subject to biometric screening. How many? 60% of them.
Other large employers are providing incentives (financial, of course) for those involved in theirwellness programs. (Some 56% of large employers are so involved.) Of course, PPACA (Obamacare) stipulates that incentives are legal for specific outcomes- lowered blood pressure- or more walking, like the 6 miles a week that is linked to better mental and physical health outcomes. (Check my blog for the scientific data behind this fact.) The maximum rewards (or penalties, as you can see how they are enacted) are set at 30% of the cost of the insurance (up from 20%). And, that means both the employer’s and employee’s share of the costs.
And, many employers only provide wellness programs if the employee submits to the biometric tests- or if share personal (the key word here is personal) information. (You thought having your financial information hacked was scary… How would you like your health care information to be available to your current employer- and every other employer with whom this firm may share it in the future? )
Let us not forget that the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act specifically preclude just this “information” sharing the employers are demanding. Which is why some of these employers are being sued by the EEOC (and some others are under investigation).
Not quite the Brave New Word envisioned by PPACA.
