CVS employees required to have weight, body fat, glucose screenings.

NBC Nightly News (3/20, story 6, 2:40, Williams, 7.86M) reported that "one of the nation's big employers, the CVS drugstore chain, is taking a hard line on monitoring its own employees' weight." NBC (Gosk) added, "To take part in the company-sponsored health insurance, CVS employees are now required to have their weight, body fat and glucose levels screened by their doctors. If they do not, their premiums may go up $600 a year." CVS says that the "goal is to help employees 'improve their health and manage health-associated costs.'"

        ABC World News (3/20, story 5, 2:05, Osunami, 7.43M) reported, "Body weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol – those are the numbers that matter. And according to company documents, if they aren't good, workers have a year to make them better, or you may have fewer health options to choose from the next time you enroll." CVS "says it's not alone or strange, saying that most employers today offer their workers health assessments and then hand out incentives to the workers who complete them. But concerned employees tell us this isn't the carrot and feels more like the stick."

        The Boston Herald (3/21, McConville, 91K) reports, "It's a choice most working Americans eventually will have to make, experts say: Tell your insurance company how much you weigh, and how much fat you're carrying, or pay a lot more for your medical coverage." CVS spokesman Michael D'Angelis said that "CVS took the approach because it works."

        The Los Angeles Times (3/20, Hamilton, 692K) reports, "Employees must agree to sign a form claiming the screening is voluntary...and allow the insurer to pass the results to the firm handling its health program."

        The Washington Times (3/21, Chasmar, 76K) reports that the plan "is causing outrage among employees for asking workers to 'voluntarily' give medical information or face a $600 fine."

        The Huffington Post (3/20) reports, "The health care reform law allows employers to levy a higher penalty against workers who don't participate in company wellness programs."

        The New York Daily News (3/21, Edelman, 543K) reports, "Employees have until May 1 to submit to the company-sponsored wellness review." Also, employees "must either be tobacco-free by May 1, 2014 or participate in the WebMD tobacco cessation program." The plans are said to have "immediately raised red flags among patient privacy advocates."

        ABC News (3/20, Osunsami) reports in its "Medical Unit" blog, "Critics are calling the policy coercion, and worrying that CVS or any other company might start firing sick workers." But "CVS insists that the use of health screenings by employer-sponsored health plans is a common practice."

        NBC Today Show (3/20, Langfield, 4.65M) reports, "While many employers have been pushing its workers to get healthier, it's usually through incentives rather than penalties. 'This is about as coercive and blunt as I've ever seen,' said Dr. Deborah C. Peel, the founder of Patient Privacy Rights, a nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas." But CVS "said the company would never see the test results."