Biometric health screenings are showing up more and more in company wellness programs. If well planned, they can turbocharge a health promotion. But if they aren't administered carefully, they can also lead to problems. Here are some guidelines to help you take advantage of the benefits while avoiding the pitfalls of biometric screenings.

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Employee Health Screenings Can
Be Well Worth the Effort

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Adding biometric health screenings to your company's wellness program can
yield a bumper crop of benefits. This may explain why these screenings are
rapidly gaining popularity. But beware: These screenings aren't a low-
maintenance HR initiative.

3. Expected Benefits
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Here are some of the benefits you might expect to see by adding well-
managed biometric screenings to your wellness program:
• Discovery of health risks both at the individual level and within a
particular employee demographic,
• Insights that can be applied to the design of your health benefit plan,
• A baseline you can use to measure your progress in elevating employees'
health indicators,
• Development of health indicator improvement incentives within the
wellness program,
• A way to alert employees with acute needs to seek medical attention, and
• Opportunities to motivate employees with troublesome (but not acute)
health indicators to modify their lifestyles and, where applicable, maintain

4. Areas for Special Attention
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Drug compliance. While wellness programs in general have brought many
good results, one exception might be in the area of prescription drugs. A study
by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that, for most of the
medical conditions examined, many wellness programs haven't been highly
successful in motivating participants to comply with their prescription drug
regimens. Using biometric screenings may offer some hope to improve that
compliance rate.

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According to the EBRI study, the "longer-term medical cost offsets and
productivity enhancements may be possible through improved medication
adherence made possible via information captured through biometric
screenings.“
Scope. Carefully consider the breadth of the medical conditions for which
your wellness program will screen. For example, a blood sample that's tested
for cholesterol and blood sugar can be subjected to all kinds of other tests,
including thyroid disorders. Yet if the scope is too wide, you could be asking
for trouble.
The problems occur when biometric screening vendors want to create a one-
stop shopping environment, adding extra tests that aren't necessarily
conducted according to proper medical protocols. For instance, a younger
employee might be given results of a test appropriate only for an older
person. Then, based on the findings of the test, he or she may jump to the
wrong conclusion.

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Even with an appropriate test, employees can still misunderstand the findings
if the results are given in a vacuum without a medical professional to explain
the meaning.
False alarms. False positives are another area of possible concern when test
results aren't reviewed by a physician. One rule of thumb is that biometric
screening tests should be limited to those that are straightforward and
employees can address through lifestyle changes. If your biometric screening
vendor proposes incorporating a broad set of tests, be sure you're satisfied
with the rationale for doing so, and that the tests will be administered under
proper clinical guidelines.

7. Four Program Recommendations
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Consider the following four recommendations from a "joint consensus
statement" of the Health Enhancement Research Organization, the American
College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and the Care
Continuum Alliance:
1. Encourage fasting. It's generally necessary for blood samples to be taken
several hours after an employee has eaten. Therefore, "fasting screenings
are limited to a 4-hour window to limit the time employees need to fast."
It's also a good idea to provide refreshments (juice and light snacks) to
employees after a fasting screening event.
2. Preserve privacy. Be sure to provide adequate privacy for screenings,
including when the employee is receiving the results of tests given.
"Screening personnel should refrain from verbalizing results and instead
point to results once recorded," the statement recommends.

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3. Choose a valid processing
format. Some screening vendors use
stations for each test component,
moving employees along in assembly
line fashion. Others prefer for all
components of the screening to be
done in one setting with one health
care professional.
When stations are used, generally
one or two screeners will complete
the biometric measurements, and
another screener will complete the
blood draw. There are advantages
and disadvantages to each approach;
you can determine which is best for
you by discussing the alternatives
with different screening vendors.

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4. Report results properly. There are typically three or four data recipients:
The employee, the employer, a health management company (for
example, an employee population health analyst, health plan
administrator or insurance carrier), and the employee's primary medical
care provider. As noted, data given to employees should be provided with
proper context to allow them to make the most sense of it. HIPAA
requires that you, as the employer, receive data only in aggregated form
to protect employee privacy rights.
Making arrangements for a health management company and the
employees' physicians to receive the data is essential to maximize the
chances that the data will be put to good use.

10. A Comprehensive Approach
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Employee biometric screenings, and even the broader wellness programs they
fall within, are certainly not a silver bullet for improving employee health and
helping you to manage the cost of your health benefits. The "joint consensus
statement" above emphasizes that point in the conclusion of its report. Your
objectives for biometric health screenings "can only be met when screenings
are part of a comprehensive health management program, prioritizing the
health and well-being of employees, specifically designed with targeted goals,
and evaluated for effectiveness and engagement.”
If you need more information about the benefits and the pitfalls of biometric
screening, visit ebri.org and type "biometric screening" into the search
window. You should also discuss any prospective screening program with your
benefits adviser.

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