Work Related Gripes V The Wrath Of Jay..

[Harmony]

Sounds like a class action lawsuit in the making, Harmony--both for your employer and for insurance provider. Unless, and this is a big one, unless they have hired a third party security company to strip all the personal identifiers from the information prior to it going to the insurer.

Yeah, you would think so.  But sadly, this is legal for my employer.  IIRC when I was looking into it, I read that these programs have been challenged in court and surprise surprise, courts sided with the employers and insurance companies.  This is a huge industry - upwards of 8 billion dollars.  Per this article from 2020, 84% of large companies already offer these programs.

https://www.consumerreports.org/health-privacy/are-workplace-wellness-programs-a-privacy-problem-a2586134220/

[hefdaddy42]

My company has used Virgin Pulse for several years.  They offer all kinds of programs and health challenges.  With our plan, anyway, we don't have to participate in any of that, but if we participate in the health biometric screening, our out-of-pocket cost for our health insurance is dramatically reduced.

It's a tool by the company.  If they are paying a substantial amount of your health insurance, they have a vested interest in your health.  Healthier workers = fewer large claims = cheaper insurance premiums.  And you can certainly opt out if you want, and just pay the higher rate.

[Lethean]

I think the insurance company is going to have much of that information anyway.  They know by the diagnosis codes on the claims the providers submit whether you have high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, etc.  For programs like this they do get more specific numbers, but if they do anything with it beyond the scope of the program, that's where they'd get in trouble.  They should be able to take that information and place you in the appropriate tier of benefits without disclosing the details to your employer. 

[hefdaddy42]

I think the insurance company is going to have much of that information anyway.  They know by the diagnosis codes on the claims the providers submit whether you have high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, etc.  For programs like this they do get more specific numbers, but if they do anything with it beyond the scope of the program, that's where they'd get in trouble.  They should be able to take that information and place you in the appropriate tier of benefits without disclosing the details to your employer.

Yes, but the key is that Virgin Pulse is not the insurance company.  They are a third-party company that is a health facilitator for the employer.  Participation in their program (which, again, is voluntary) results in a reduced out of pocket cost to the employee for health insurance.

[Phoenix87x]

They just started doing the virgin pulse thing at my job too. Its very annoying

[ReaperKK]

We use Rally at my job. It's pretty simple, if you get a physical, biometric screen, and dental exam once a year they'll give you $800 in your HSA account.

We used to have all these other activities like walking, tracking how much ater you drink, etc. But they simplified it this year to getting those three checkups done.

[cramx3]

So since my company I work for was bought last year, we have basically completed all of the migrations to be apart of the new work overlords way of doing things... except for one last thing.  They use Teams and are making us stop using Slack.  So we have a few more months of Slack being active before they shut it down and the process of migrating our communication channels to Teams has started and I must say... Teams is TRASH compared to Slack. 

[ReaperKK]

I've never been at a company that used Slack, we recently brought Teams on and while it's not great the power app integration stuff is pretty good. We actually have four different chat apps at work:

Skype 2016
Teams
Symphony
Bloomberg chat (my favorite cause I feel like a 1337 haxor using it )

[Skeever]

So my employer has implemented a "wellness program" via Virgin Pulse that started this month.  Essentially, if an employee chooses not to participate they pay double the amount towards their health insurance costs.  So instead of paying 5% of the cost, you'd pay 10%.  This is not a small chunk of change.

In this particular "wellness program" you earn specific points for specific activities.  You must reach a particular threshold to get the discounted rate on your insurance.  What this means is that I am forced to disclose my personal health information (or financial information) to this company and set goals to improve my health and wellness status or improve my financial status.

This is like big brother run amok.  And I am told by my union rep that there is nothing that can be done about it.  That most major companies are doing these programs in order to save on health insurance costs.

Just when you think the health care in this nation (USA!  USA!  USA!) couldn't possibly get any worse.  Now I have a major corporation tracking my sleep, my exercise, my diet, my stress, my medical information (including lab work), and using this information for god knows what.   

And to top it all off, my employer just LOVES to brag about how "equitable" they are toward their employees.  Yeah, how equitable is it that people who have the financial means to pay more of their insurance costs can easily disregard this nonsense but a single parent with 4 kids who can barely make ends meet is forced to participate even if they don't want to because they simply don't have the money to pay more.  Holy shit balls this fucking sucks ass. 

Just lie to it