An employer group criticized the latest legal challenge to an employee wellness program filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The commission alleges that Honeywell International, Inc.’s biometric testing incentive for employees and their spouses violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.
“This is an outrageous development, and one that could potentially jeopardize not only the health of America’s workers, but also that of their spouses,” said Gretchen Young, senior vice president for health policy at the ERISA Industry Committee.
Unlike two other lawsuits the EEOC filed recently, the action filed Oct. 27 against Honeywell actually seeks to block an incentive planned for 2015. Another difference is that Honeywell’s financial incentive for biometric testing is a specified amount, rather than the entire premium as the EEOC alleged in the two prior cases.
The ADA generally prohibits medical inquiries of employees, with an exception for voluntary wellness programs. The EEOC has not issued guidance on the amount of financial incentive that would render a program involuntary, despite employer groups’ longstanding calls to do so.
The EEOC also alleged that Honeywell’s program violates GINA because the employee is penalized if the spouse does not complete the biometric testing. GINA prohibits financial incentives for disclosing family medical information, which GINA rules define to include information on a spouse.
Details of EEOC Lawsuit
Under Honeywell’s program, an employee who declines to undergo the testing is assessed a $500 surcharge and loses contributions that the company otherwise would make to his or her health savings account, which could total up to $1,500, according to the EEOC complaint. Because the testing covers nicotine, the employee also would be charged an extra $1,000 as a presumed smoker. An employee with family coverage allegedly must pay another $1,000 if his or her spouse does not take the test.
After two Honeywell employees complained to the EEOC, the commission went to federal district court to seek a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop Honeywell from imposing the penalties, pending a decision on the underlying allegations.
Company Defends Program
According to Honeywell, however, “the Chicago EEOC Office is unfamiliar with the details of our wellness programs and woefully out of step with the healthcare marketplace and with the core intent of the Affordable Care Act to provide expanded access and improved health care to all Americans.”
Employees who take the biometric screening will pay $125 less in monthly premiums than those who do not, but “no Honeywell employee has ever been denied health care coverage or disciplined in any way as a result of their voluntary decision not to participate in our wellness programs,” the company stated. “The incentives in our wellness programs are pro-consumer and have delivered demonstrably better health care outcomes for employees and their families.”
Honeywell’s incentives also comply with the detailed wellness program rules issued under the ACA and HIPAA by the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury, according to the company.
“Even though large American companies have invested a huge amount of time, money, and manpower into making sure that their wellness programs comply with the ACA, now here comes the EEOC out of left field with a whole new set of rules and regulations to impose on these programs,” ERIC’s Young argued. “The EEOC has apparently decided that it will be playing by a different set of rules, with no forewarning to companies whatsoever.”
Wellness program regulations are discussed in the Employer’s Guide to HIPAA.