Photo: Indiana University
Indiana University officials say they are canceling a portion of the new health engagement program.
Indiana University employees don’t have to complete a health assessment survey to qualify for a reduction in their health insurance costs. University officials announced the decision Monday to cancel that part of the new health engagement program. IU’s 17,000 full-time employees will still have to complete the other two parts of the program- getting a biometric screening and signing a non-smoking affidavit. University spokesperson Larry MacIntyre says the health screening questionnaire was designed to give experts an idea of how an individual may improve their long term health chances. But he says the University decided to eliminate it after hearing complaints from a number of concerned employees.
“The employees started going into – it’s an online questionnaire and they started going into the online questionnaire about a month or two ago and some employees felt that the questions that were being asked were in someway intrusive or seeking private information,” MacIntyre said. “So concern was starting to grow among employees. That did come to the attention of not only President McRobbie but Dan Reeves our Human Resources Chief and Neil Theobold, Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer.”
Clarian conducted the survey and will now destroy all the data that has been collected. MacIntyre says everyone will get credit for filling out the health assessment. The other two parts of the program are still required if employees hope to get the full health insurance premium reduction. The University does plan to revisit the idea of conducting a health survey, but MacIntyre says they want to make sure beforehand that it is something employees are comfortable with.
