Wellness programs are designed to help employers manage their corporate health care costs by creating a healthier workforce. In this column from Wolters Kluwer's Health Reform WK-EDGE newsletter, Andrea Powers discusses when and how the HIPAA privacy and security rules impact wellness programs and provides insight on how to ensure compliance.
Ms. Powers notes that employers can find it difficult to understand what the law requires and what it does not. "Employers often get confused about the HIPAA rules that apply to health information and don't realize that only that information that flows through the health plan is covered by HIPAA privacy rules. While there may be other privacy laws that require [health information] be kept confidential, medical information provided for FMLA purposes is not covered by HIPAA."