EEOC WELLNESS PROGRAM RULES UPDATE

EEOC Wellness Program Rules Update

In June 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) approved a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on wellness programs under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The NPRM will now go to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, and if approved, the public will have the opportunity to review it and submit comments.

In 2016, the EEOC issued employer wellness program rules that clarified the extent to which employers could offer incentives to employees to participate in wellness programs that include:

• Questions about the employees’ health (e.g. health assessments)
• Medical examinations (e.g. screenings)
• Certain requests for genetic information

Those rules were later challenged by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), and the court ruled that the EEOC failed to justify the 30% incentive threshold adopted in the rules. Those incentive provisions under the ADA and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) were ultimately removed, effective January 1, 2019.

Trustmark will continue to monitor activity on this topic. We will share any relevant developments.