'Wellness programs '

Yeah, it really is a great setup. Our company does accreditation for rehab facilities, so fostering a wellness-oriented corporate culture has been fairly easy because of that connection.

We're lucky to have also had a great response from management about making our wellness activities accessible to all, and not focused on weight/BMI/eating. We've had coloring parties (for emotional health), a challenge to encourage employees to get at least 7h of sleep every night, a competition to see who could stand up and take the most stretch breaks over a 3-month period, that sort of thing.

I write a "wellness committee moment" column for our newsletter and manage the committee bulletin board in the breakroom. In the past year, I've covered stuff like sun safety, mental health screenings, organ donation, how to read nutrition labels, as many dimensions of wellness as I can cover.

So I think it's definitely possible to stay away from weight- or metric-based health stuff, it just needs to have some internal folks driving it in that direction.

This sounds like a great program!

No, you're not. I agree with you and was always suspicious of these types of programs. And yes I think they could use it against you at some future time.

I'm sure there are some that are well intended. But most of them are bullcrap.

They aim to save the employer money, period. And mostly, they don't care how.

The studies so far show that they do nothing to raise the level of employee health. So they save money by charging extra to those who don't participate, and who "fail" at the employer's goals. And government is increasingly protecting employer's rights to do this, and removing more protections from workers.

The same trend has been going on in car insurance, though it will take longer because car insurance is not under employer control. They are offering small incentives to monitor every byte of your driving data. Where and when you drive, speed patterns, force applied to the brakes, how fast you take corners -- everything. And by offering small incentives for voluntary participation, they will one day have a critical mass of drivers. Then they will eliminate incentives, and start penalizing those *****fuse to participate.

Privacy will be the next great civil rights movement. Or it ought to be.

AMEN.

I participate in the Medical Mutual disease management program for diabetes. For a once a quarterly nurse coach call I get all my diabetic supplies for free. Even though I'm not on any diabetic meds, I'm still a diabeti****il my doctor says I'm not. I still check my blood sugar twice a day. My surgeon ordered an A1C test for end of June. He predicts it will be in the 5 range. Test strips are expensive. I know I'm improving and my morning fastings are in the 80s o 90s range. Tomorrow is my fourth month anniversary.

They encourage wellness because healthier employees means less health claims which means less risk for them and less $out the door.

They're really just encouraging "normal" BMI in the OP's case. Which isn't the same thing as wellness. :/

I also tend to have mixed feelings about these programs. I tend to err on the side of privacy and guarding my information very closely. On the other hand, our health insurance plans/doctors have SO MUCH private info already, that I don't know that these wellness programs really intrude more. I also truly appeciate the wellness tips through newsletters, bulletin boards, etc.

What troubles me most about these programs is how they flag you. For example, I have been flagged in the past for having high cholesterol (which I never ever had) because for some procedure, a doctor prescribed a med that is often prescribed for high cholesterol. This was during a pretty healthy time in my life, yet it set off YEARS of me getting calls from insurance nurses, and mailed info, starting out with "because you have high cholesterol . . ." Or, "we are concerned about your significant health challenges." It took changing insurance plans before I stopped getting these calls/mailings. So I really dislike the programs that use computer info to assert you have a specific problem--such things could raise your rates inappropriately.

I recently had orthopedic surgery, and the hospital network uses a program that lists your meds. There were about 10 meds on my list--none of which i have used for years, and never did i use all of them at once. When I was pre-admitted by phone, the caller asked about these meds in my records, and I said no no no no no as we went through the list--I'm not using these. Then, when I was admitted the day of surgery, the nurse went through all of these meds again! To confirm again! I said, no no no no . . .." but the system would not let her override. So when I was released to go home, with my computer-generated home care docs, these docs listed all of these meds, and warned me about drug interactions, etc. It is this computer generated stupidity, IMO, that actually causes problems for us. I know that the idea is this will help us--I promise you I am no computerphobe--I worked in the computer industry for many years, and my husband still does. But in practice, these flagging systems do not always help us. Lots can go wrong when computers use algorithms to determine things based on incorrect assumptions.

So that is the kind of thing that troubles me about entering my info into a database. Even if the info is kept private, the company makes decisions about me that might be erroneous.

I'm sure I'm flagged by my insurance. Now that my health has greatly improved I'm hoping to save money. Especially on meds and doc visits. What I take is generic and cheap. The Ursidoil for gallbladder ends in June. The other two meds doxycycline and generic synthroid are long term. But I get 90 days of generic synthroid for $10 cash price no insurance at WalMart. The doxy is $10 for 39 days with insurance.

Pin a few months I'll be eligible for a pair of new orthotic inserts, but I'll need to see a podiatrist. Still a diabetic and have very high arches. I'll pay 10% as a co-pay of the negotiated rate. I get one pair every 18 months. Without the inserts, I'm at risk.