PPACA Impact and Opportunities : Health Care Lawyer & Attorney : Epstein Becker Green Law Firm : Insurance & Costs : Health Reform Musings Blog

On Friday, November 30, Epstein Becker Green attorneys Frank C. Morris, Jr., and Adam C. Solander offered a one-hour webinar titled “The New Wellness Program Regulations, Part of a Webinar Series on the New ACA Implementation Regulations: Employer Impact.” The webinar discussed:

• the proposed regulations and the impact these regulations could have on your overall wellness strategy
• areas where employer comment is needed
• recent wellness litigation trends
• where EEOC fits in the picture

The audio recording and presentation slides for "The New Wellness Program Regulations" webinar are now available. Contact Elizabeth Gannon at 202/861-1850 or egannon@ebglaw.com, or Lisa Blackburn at 202/861-1887 or lblackburn@ebglaw.com, to obtain a password to download the files.

Kara Maciel, Member of the Epstein Becker Green Labor and Employment, Litigation, and Health Care and Life Sciences Practices, was recently interviewed by Employment Law360 concerning employer wellness programs. 

According to the article, businesses are turning to wellness programs to curb health care expenses, but programs that aren't carefully crafted can open employers up to costly privacy and discrimination litigation, attorneys say.  Wellness programs can lead to big savings for employers by targeting behaviors that can cause conditions that drive up their health care expenditures. But programs that give employers too much  information about their employees can leave employers vulnerable to claims that they have violated the  Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and state privacy and nondiscrimination laws, experts say. 

“Employers really can open themselves up to a litigation minefield if they do not properly craft their programs in a legally compliant way, with a particular focus on discrimination and privacy issues,” said Maciel. 

Click here to download the Employment Law360 article in its entirety (PDF).