Companies Monitor Employee Health

The Affordable Care Act is encouraging business owners to watch their employee’s weight. Almost like a healthcare credit rating, companies can now identify which of their employees pose a greater health risk. The ACA is offering incentives to companies to use medical record data to implement wellness programs. The sickest employees will be labeled and prompted to action by their bosses. The federal government has already spent over twenty-four billion dollars to study medical forecasting practices. Research from Stanford University shows that data from a patient’s electronic health record can predict clinical depression up to a year in advance. Another study tracked 37,000 Aetna employees and accurately predicted who would develop diabetes in the coming year. Several apps and health monitors collect information about people’s eating and exercise habits. Now, that information might be available to your boss. This emerging trend is rather troubling to many employees who prefer not to be labeled as a risk to their employers.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/data-mining-health-care-109153.html