The Illinois Business Law Journal

What Relevance Does The ADA Have To HIPAA-Regulated "Bona Fide Wellness Programs"?

     Many employers are at a loss as to what they are allowed to do to encourage their employees to live healthy lifestyles.  Because of the confusion, and lack of guidance on this issue, employers have put into practice a wide range of programs and incentives for their employees.  This article attempts to clear the air, and explain how the ADA's requirements intersect "bona fide Wellness Programs" provided for by HIPAA.  This article will be particularly useful for employers attempting to stagger health insurance premiums that different employees are charged.

Wind vs. Water

On August 29, 2005, a natural disaster stormed into the Gulf Coast with a ferocity and pestilence never before witnessed on U.S. soil. Hurricane Katrina’s violent winds and raging waters left a devastating collection of destroyed homes, ruined business and vanquished lives in their wake. "An estimated 9.7 million people living in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi experienced hurricane force winds." [1] The magnitude of the storm, "the most destructive – and costly – natural disaster in U.S. history," is remembered by an unprecedented death toll and a relief effort that continues to this day. [2]

Super Size My Premiums Please!

An analysis and proposed solution to the health care crisis brought on by the American obesity epidemic.

I: The United States’ BIG Problem 

As though a perverted manifestation of the maternal warning against making an “ugly face” (“or it will be stuck like that for the rest of your life”) has actually rung true, the playground taunt of “fatty, fatty, two-by-four” is no longer a simple and vindictive pre-adolescent utterance but a fact. Much like a face stricken with a permanently contorted expression, our nation has been punished with a nationwide obesity epidemic. Throughout this article, the term epidemic is used to mean a rapid and extensive growth and not the outbreak of disease. Short of pathogen-laden Twinkies or Little Debbie being diagnosed with tuberculosis, obesity is not a disease. The United States has devoted greater attention to the obesity issue in the past year, but the country has yet to reach a solution to its pudgy predicament.