CVS Employees Must Provide Personal Medical Info Or Pay Higher Insurance Premiums

CVS is launching a “voluntary” new program for employees that allows them to avoid paying more for health insurance, if they just share personal medical information — weight, body fat, glucose levels, etc. — with the company.

ABC News reports that CVS staffer have until May 1, 2014, to make an appointment with a doctor in order to gather the required information.

“Our benefits program is evolving to help our colleagues take more responsibility for improving their health and managing health-associated costs,” explains a CVS rep to the Boston Herald. “All personal health data is kept private by our wellness program’s third party administrator and is never shared with CVS Caremark.”

We just hope these files don’t end up on a city sidewalk like the bunch of old prescriptions a Manhattan CVS left outside for anyone to pick through.

The CVS program is just the latest among companies trying the carrot/stick approach to keeping healthcare costs down. However, many of the larger companies that have started such programs offer discounts or refunds for employees who take part in certain wellness programs, rather than penalize employees who feel it may be invasive for their employer to request such personal information.

“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 tells ABC News. “It’s technology-enhanced discrimination on steroids.”

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