{"id":2904,"date":"2016-05-17T09:54:40","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T13:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=2904"},"modified":"2016-05-17T09:54:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T13:54:40","slug":"final-eeoc-rule-sets-limits-for-financial-incentives-on-wellness-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=2904","title":{"rendered":"Final EEOC Rule Sets Limits For Financial Incentives On Wellness Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By Julie Appleby for Kaiser Health News)<\/p>\n<p>Employer wellness programs can gather medical information from employees and spouses \u2014\u00a0so long as financial incentives or penalties don\u2019t exceed 30 percent of the annual cost for an individual in the company\u2019s group health plan, according to final rules issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Although such penalties or incentives could run into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars, the programs are considered voluntary \u2014\u00a0and therefore legal, the commission said.<\/p>\n<div>The\u00a0rules seek to ensure \u201cwellness programs actually promote good health and are\u00a0not just used to collect or sell sensitive medical information about employees and family members or to impermissibly shift health insurance costs to them,\u201d the EEOC said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But the final rules drew immediate concern from some groups.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Jennifer Mathis, director of programs for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, says the new rule rolls back protections in existing law. <a href=\"http:\/\/khn.org\/news\/final-eeoc-rule-sets-limits-for-financial-incentives-on-wellness-programs\/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+First+Edition&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=29648796&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9f8V0o9Mk79OXr_qF9pMXYN937Spu-0gYK4VjSbDGl8jc-uQc5nw4Tdhe8PmKTw02YqzKWFE5oWGHnQfo5Buzw7BfvlQ&amp;_hsmi=29648796\" target=\"_blank\">Read article here&#8230;.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: 15px\/1.6 'Open Sans', serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">Kaiser Health News\u00a0is\u00a0a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font: 15px\/1.6 'Open Sans', serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-899 \" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png\" alt=\"khn-logo1\" width=\"92\" height=\"48\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-1024x533.png 1024w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-390x205.png 390w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 92px) 100vw, 92px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<pre><strong>Notice<\/strong>: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Julie Appleby for Kaiser Health News) Employer wellness programs can gather medical information from employees and spouses \u2014\u00a0so long<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affordable-care-act-aca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2905,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions\/2905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}