Health Profile Redesign

November 13, 2009

Recently, we have received some customer inquiries about the federal law enacted last year titled the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act (GINA). The law is designed to protect consumers from the improper use of genetic information, including family medical history information, in order to diminish the risk of discrimination by insurers, company health benefit plans, and employers.

Additionally, the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury recently issued new rules implementing GINA that prohibit the collection of family medical history information through health risk assessments as a basis for awarding certain financial incentives. Many health plans and employers use financial incentives to maximize the rate of participation in health risk assessments by employees and dependents. The new GINA rules are effective as of Dec. 7, 2009, for plan years beginning on or after that date.

In answer to the recent rules impacting the collection of family medical history information, Group Health Cooperative is taking immediate action and will be redesigning the Health Profile.

Starting Dec. 30, 2009, the Health Profile will not be accessible to our members. This will allow us to reprogram certain interactive tools in response to GINA. This will include deleting questions that ask for family medical history, in the short term. We are planning a new launch of the revised Health Profile in February, 2010. Over the longer term, Group Health will create an additional, stand alone section in the Health Profile that enables members to voluntarily provide information about their family histories so their health care providers can better assess health risks and provide more personalized care.