CVS presses workers for medical information

Wait till companies start mandating DNA testing. Then everyone will have a "pre-existing condition."

Because something eventually will kill all of us if we don't get hit by a train first.

 

Don't you work for an airline?

When I worked for an airline, I had to pass a drug test to get hired, and was subject to random testing.

 

In some professions, drug testing seems a bit more essential than in others.

 

I passed the one to get hired. We don't do randoms, only time you get tested is if an incident happens at work.

 

Wouldn't the plan administrator be in violation of HIPAA privacy provisions if it released this information to the employer?

My employer requires smokers to pay more for insurance. The State of North Carolina tried to require smokers and those deemed overweight to pay more but I think they backed off the policy.

I did get a letter from the insurance provider congratulating me on all the proactive health things I had done last year, with a list of various tests that had been done, then suggesting other things I could do in the next year. I thought the letter was big-brotherish creepy.

 

CVS gets what it wants from the state government. Former CEO Tom Ryan enjoyed a very good reputation (URI's hoops arena is named after him, and he once won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am with Tom Brady), and he knew how to make a backroom deal.
The new CEO just got $18M in total compensation for '12 (and the board chairman says he was worth every penny). CVS is also fighting the governor's budget, which would cut corporate taxes across the state but turf tax breaks like the one CVS benefits from at nearly $5M per. New CEO says he's "reconsidering staff levels" in RI.
We put up with the corporate arrogance because of the jobs. If they cut jobs, however...

 

Thanks, terrier.

 

I once worked in a factory where you had to pass a drug test before you were hired. And the HR guy followed you in the bathroom and watched you pee into the cup. Good times.

A newspaper company I worked for did the health screening thing, then they had this life coach bullshit where they called you every month. I'm not sure what they wanted to talk about because I just hung up on them, if I answered it at all. If they were really interested in my health, they probably shouldn't have chained me to a desk for 10 or 12 hours a day in an understaffed three-ring circus of stress with the layoff/furlough/paycut ax dangling six inches above my neck.

 

I saw four different guys go to the hospital during sports shifts because of heart scares. The joke was that if we collapsed and died during the deadline push, everyone else would just step around us until 1 a.m.

 

"Talk to me about your feelings."

"Well, I don't know ..."

"It's healthy for you to talk about your feelings. That's why I'm calling. So you can get healthy."

"Alright, well, Idiot Life Coach, I've been .... been feeling stressed."

"There, see, that's not so hard to admit. Why have you been feeling stressed?"

"Because I'm feeling a lot of pressure from people, and I have a lot to do."

"Why don't you tell those people to stop pressuring you, and try to cut down on your activities?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because all this bullshit pressure and things to do is caused by the fucking idiots who are running my company."

Click.

 

A few conservative chums of mine are railing against CVS. Interesting stuff.