When Penn State steps in it, the university just doesn't mess around.
With the furor surrounding former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno just dying down, the university thrust itself into the limelight this year by announcing it would penalize employees who didn't fully participate in its wellness program.
That participation included divulging personal information that some employees took strident exception to. The howls of protest were so loud that Penn State backed off its plan. But now, a federal lawmaker is citing the Penn State situation to demand a broad wellness program investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter lodged the request, asking the EEOC to probe wellness programs that, like Penn State's, try to force employees to share personal health details or face fines or other sanctions.
"What happened at Penn State was appalling to me," Ms. Slaughter told the New York Times. The incident, she said, motivated her to formally request an EEOC investigation.
"While the (Penn State) employer wellness program has recently suspended this fee, their plan still raises concerns about the type of information that can be collected through wellness programs and the definition of 'voluntary' participation,'" she wrote to the commission. "It is my strong hope that EEOC promptly drafts sub-regulatory guidance stopping this type of abuse and ensuring strong nondiscrimination protections for employees in wellness programs."
Slaughter authored the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. The federal law prohibits employers and health insurers from discriminating based on a person's genetic information.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
