01/06/2010
New federal law impacts use of General Health Assessments
A new federal law, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), went into effect on Dec. 7, 2009. It's designed to protect consumers from the improper use of genetic information, including family medical histories or genetic testing. One purpose of the law is to diminish the risk of discrimination by insurers, company health benefit plans and employers.
GINA prohibits a group health plan or insurer from discriminating on the basis of genetic information. Family medical history falls within the definition of genetic information. Therefore, GINA makes it impermissible to ask for family medical history before enrolling or renewing an individual in a health plan.
That restriction also applies to asking for family medical history in post-enrollment General Health Assessments (GHAs) if employees will be rewarded for completing the assessment or penalized for not doing so.
To comply with GINA, we are removing family medical history questions from the GHA on myAsuris.com. Doing so allows our employer groups to continue offering financial incentives to employees for completing a myAsuris.com GHA, and enables Asuris to continue awarding Rewards points to those completing one.
The law imposes stiff fines for violations.
Be sure your clients are aware of this new law. Groups should leverage their coverage plan, wellness consultant and legal teams (if necessary) to make sure that their wellness programs are compliant with GINA.
If you have any questions, please talk to your Asuris Sales contact.
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