EEOC has begun examining the emphasis on wellness programs in health insurance at which experts warned of potential privacy and discrimination concerns. The focus at present is not on the FEHB in particular but the issues are similar among all plans, and could be heightened within the FEHB community by the White House’s recent proposal to allow carriers to charge higher premiums to enrollees who do not participate in such programs—a proposal that has left a range of unanswered questions. EEOC was told there’s a particular risk when wellness programs require medical exams or ask questions that could touch on disabilities, both of which could violate disability law. While such questions may be couched as voluntary, it would be hard to draw that distinction, it said. Wellness programs also could touch on information including family medical history in violation of a law allowing enrollees to keep such information private, experts said. In addition, certain conditions tend to be concentrated by age, by gender or by race, potentially bringing into play protections under laws barring discrimination on those grounds.
