A new policy by CVS Pharmacy requires every one of its nearly 200,000 employees who use its health plan to submit their weight, body fat, glucose levels and other vitals or pay a monthly fine.
Employees who agree to this testing will see no change in their health insurance rates, but those who refuse will have to pay an extra $50 per month - or $600 per year - for the company's health insurance program. All employees have until May 1, 2014, to make an appointment with a doctor and record their vitals.
"The approach they're taking is based on the assumption that somehow these people need a whip, they need to be penalized in order to make themselves healthy," Patient Privacy Rights founder Dr. Deborah Peel said.
As a person that has never had a "healthy" BMI even when my body fat percentage goes into single digits I really question how this benefits employees. I do see it as a way to gouge employees that have health conditions and have been fat shamed their entire lives for something they have no control over. Yes I'm usually rail thin but I'm the anomaly in my family. The natural body type in my family is Venus of Willendorf:
So I'm well aware of the crap they have to put up with from a public that assumes gluttony is the cause of obesity.
Apparently this intrusiveness is legal:
Brad Seff, a former Broward County, Fla., employee, learned the hard way that it is legal, according to one court. Seff sued the county in April 2011 after it charged him an extra $40 per month for health insurance after he refused health screenings.
In the suit, Seff said the wellness program violated the Americans With Disabilities Act because the county was making medical inquires of its employees. Seff lost his suit.
“I’m so disgusted. I moved. I left the state,” Seff told ABC News by phone
Are these screenings free or are employees also being charged co-pays and deductibles and other euphemisms for ripping off customers?