IU lifts Health Risk Assessment requirement for faculty, staff

IU will not request the campus’s 17,000 full-time employees to fill out an online Health Risk Assessment questionnaire, Associate Vice President for Human Resources Dan Rives announced Monday.
 
The survey would allow employees to qualify for a reduction in their health insurance premium in 2011.

“The decision to cancel this component of the Health Engagement Program was made in response to concerns raised by employees about privacy and relevancy of some of the information being collected,” Rives said in an IU press release. “Although the assessment was intended to help employees better manage their personal health, it was felt that the University should not implement it without the acceptance and understanding of its employees.”

Data already collected from employees who filled out the online questionnaire will be destroyed to ensure privacy, Rives said in the release.

With the new changes, all participants in IU medical plans will automatically receive the reduction that would have been granted for completing the survey.

Two other components of the program have not changed: the Tobacco-free Affidavit, for employees and spouses/domestic partners who certify that he or she does not use tobacco product, and the Biometric Screening tests, which help employees and spouses access the risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke, hypertension, kidney disease and hardening of arteries.

A review will be conducted early next year to discuss an alternative method to the risk assessment that will help employees achieve their health goals, Rives said in the release.

— Bailey Loosemore