Yale University Hit with Class Action Over Wellness Program’s Mandatory Opt-Out Fees [UPDATE]
by Erin Shaak
Last Updated on March 11, 2022
Kwesell et al v. Yale University
Filed: July 16, 2019 ◆§ 3:19cv1098
Yale University faces a proposed class action lawsuit over the mandatory fees charged to union members who opt out of the university’s wellness program.
Case Updates
March 11, 2022 – Yale Agrees to $1.29M Settlement
The parties in the case detailed on this page have asked the court to approve a $1.29 million settlement that aims to compensate certain Yale employees and requires the university to make certain changes to its wellness program and data sharing practices.
According to a March 4 memo, the proposed settlement looks to cover current and former Yale University employees who were required to participate in the school’s Health Expectations program or pay an opt-out fee between when Yale began tracking compliance with the program in September 2018 and May 14, 2020, when the school stopped collecting the fee.
Those covered by the settlement, called class members, will automatically receive payment of a portion of the fees they paid to opt out of the program, which is currently estimated to be about 50 percent of their fees but could change depending on the final number of individuals who participated in the program, the number of people who opt out of the settlement and the amount awarded for attorneys’ fees and costs.
The settlement also looks to compensate people who the plaintiffs claim participated in the wellness program just to avoid the mandatory opt-out fee. According to the memo, those who attended health coaching will receive $225, employees whose spouses attended health coaching will receive $50, and each class member who did not attend health coaching but was deemed compliant with the Health Expectations program will receive $50. Anyone who falls into multiple categories will receive payments for each category, but those who are paid $225 for attending health coaching will not receive an additional $50 for complying with the program.
Yale has also agreed to change certain practices as part of the deal and will stop collecting Health Expectations program fees for four years or until there is a change in law. The school has also agreed to direct Healthmine, one of its business associates, to stop sending data to TrestleTree, Yale’s wellness program vendor, for health coaching referrals. TrestleTree will also be directed to delete all data related to prior health coaching engagements and notify those who are currently engaged in health coaching that they have the option to have their records either retained or deleted and to discontinue their coaching with no penalty.
Those covered by the settlement will not be required to submit a claim form to receive payment but will be notified of the deal via a class notice sent to the mailing address Yale has on file. An official settlement website will also be set up to inform class members about the deal.
The settlement still needs to be preliminarily approved by the judge overseeing the case before it can be implemented.
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Yale University faces a proposed class action lawsuit over the mandatory fees charged to union members who opt out of the university’s wellness program.
Yale, according to the lawsuit, requires members of two of the school’s local unions to participate in the Health Expectation Program (HEP), a wellness program that the case says requires Yale employees and their spouses to submit to “invasive medical examinations and testing” and divulge protected medical information. If members do not comply with HEP’s “stringent requirements,” they must pay a fine of $25 per week, which adds up to $1,300 per year, the lawsuit explains.
A table summarizing the HEP’s testing requirements has been included below:
In addition to these “burdensome medical examinations,” the HEP, the case continues, also requires that some union members consult with a health coach. The university allegedly gleans information from employees’ health insurance claims and assigns them a health coach if it determines that their medical history presents “certain risk variables” such as multiple chronic conditions, “lab values out of range,” or a diagnosis of diabetes, heart disease, heart failure, or other conditions.
The plaintiffs, several members of the University’s Local 34 and Local 35, claim the hefty financial penalty imposed on them for choosing not to comply with the HEP renders their participation in the program involuntary and therefore violates their right to keep their personal information private. According to the case, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) prohibit employers from obtaining employees’ medical and genetic information unless the data is provided voluntarily.
“The $25 per week fine imposes a significant burden on certain members of the Class; so much so that paying the $25 per week fine is not a viable option,” the complaint stresses. “These members of Local 34 and Local 35 are forced to disclose sensitive medical information and undergo invasive testing to avoid the weekly fine.”
The lawsuit notes that Yale partners with two third-party vendors, non-parties HealthMine and Trestle Tree, to administer the HEP program. HealthMine assists Yale in determining whether union members require a health coach, the case explains, and if so, forwards their insurance claims data to Trestle Tree. Trestle Tree then pairs the individual with a health coach, the suit says.
Importantly, the lawsuit stresses, Trestle Tree is not an entity covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), meaning that employees’ private medical data is no longer under the same level of protection once it is transferred to Trestle Tree. According to the case, HEP participants are asked to sign a HIPAA waiver in order to receive HEP credit; however, the lawsuit alleges that HealthMine transfers employees’ private data to Trestle Tree even when they refuse to sign the waiver.
“The claims migration process reveals and jeopardizes the privacy of sensitive information about employees’ and their spouses’ medical histories, including the manifestation of a disease or disorder—information protected under the ADA and GINA,” the complaint charges.
The lawsuit, apart from seeking monetary damages, looks to prohibit Yale from continuing to impose a weekly fine on union members for their non-participation in its wellness program as well as bar the university from divulging their private data to third parties.
The full complaint can be read below.
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