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Article: Health risk assessments face bias hurdle; Strict limits imposed on genetic questions.
- Article from:
- Business Insurance
- Article date:
- October 12, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: JOANNE WOJCIK
Employers may have to scramble to comply with Internal Revenue Service rules implementing a genetic nondiscrimination law.
With many companies beginning their fall open enrollment for their health care plans, employers will have to make sure questions on family medical history are removed from any health risk assessments for which they reward employees to complete.
That is required under the IRS rules issued recently to implement sections of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, which took effect May 21, 2008.
Under the rules, employers are prohibited from collecting genetic informationdefined as ...