Anna Slomovic

Wellness programs are coming to life insurance.  These programs are structured similarly to programs offered by employers and health insurers. The individual who wants to buy and maintain one of these policies fills out a questionnaire about lifestyle and habits, submi...

You walk into a coffeehouse and look at the menu. Just as you are about to order a large coffee drink with whipped cream and caramel, your phone buzzes--it’s your nutrition app. The app reminds you that you are working on losing a few pounds and suggests that you get a...

Last week Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Rep. John Kline (R-MN) introduced the Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act in Congress. The proposed law seeks to counter the recent court cases filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In these cases,...

“Just put your fitness tracker on the dog and let the dog run around in the yard.”

“I simply lied on the health risk assessment about the questions that were none of their business.”

 “I can put my step counter on my two-year-old. She takes lots of steps!”

These are th...

On January 27, 2015 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a staff report titled “Internet of Things: Privacy and Security in a Connected World.” The staff wrote the report on the basis of a workshop held in November 2013 and public comments. Because it is based...

As workplace wellness programs become increasingly common, we hear more questions about whether they fulfill one of their main stated objectives--reducing healthcare costs. We don’t hear nearly as much about the non-financial effects on the employees who must participa...

Would you be comfortable sharing sensitive health and lifestyle information with a representative of your employer? Would you tell them about your sexual activity, seeing a psychotherapist, sources of professional and personal stress, or potential violations of the law...

There was an interesting and thoughtful article recently about the implications of the Canadian case in which evidence from a Fitbit is used in a disability lawsuit. The author also talks about the increasing use of tracking data in legal proceedings of all kinds. Of c...

On November 16, 2014, Forbes published an article about what appears to be the first case of using data from a fitness tracker in personal injury claim litigation. Simon Muller of McLeod Law in Calgary, whose client filed the lawsuit, says: “If you’ve been wearing the...

Most American companies now have wellness programs and most of these programs use some kind of financial incentives to increase employee participation. The recent EEOC lawsuit seeking to stop Honeywell from conducting biometric screening as part of its wellness program...