GINA Mandate Compliance
As you may be aware, on October 7, 2009, the federal government issued regulations related to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). These rules, which became effective December 7, 2009, include limits on requesting genetic information, such as family history, in a health risk assessment (HRA), in certain circumstances.

In response to GINA, we have been working with our health risk assessment partner, Healthways, Inc. (Healthways), to remove family history questions from our health risk assessment.

For health risk assessments taken after November 12:
Healthways will have the family history questions removed from health risk assessments as of November 12. As of that date, any member who completes a health risk assessment will no longer be asked questions related to family history.

For health risk assessments taken prior to November 12:
Federal regulators have provided employers with five options for "in-flight" campaigns where health risk assessments with family history questions have already been completed by employees:

1. Reward every employee in the plan (irrespective of whether a health risk assessment was completed);

2. Reward no employees in the plan (irrespective of whether a health risk assessment was completed);

3. Have members take (or retake, as applicable) the health risk assessment after November 12, by which time the family history questions will have been removed, and reward as originally planned;

4. Issue rewards prior to December 31, 2009, where such rewards are based on health risk assessments containing family history questions;

5. For accounts that required the completion of multiple activities in order to obtain rewards, change the rewards program so that rewards will not be distributed for completing a health risk assessment, but will be distributed for other wellness activities, provided that all employees have been given a meaningful opportunity to participate in the newly designed reward program.

If you have any questions about GINA's effect on your clients' plans, please contact your account executive.