Please read carefully the following message from Executive Director Karen Sawislak:
To UC-AFT represented lecturers and librarians:
I am writing as a follow up to my January message about the new UC Wellness program (Staywell). As you know, the UC-AFT Executive Board had joined all of the other UC unions in opting out of this program, because it was not clear to the Board that UC had made adequate provisions to ensure members' privacy.
Last month, UC management arranged meetings with its unions and with representatives from Staywell. At the meeting with UC-AFT, it became clear that the privacy concerns that our Executive Board had expressed were being addressed. Most importantly, we have been assured that the Staywell program will ask for your permission before sharing your personal information with anyone else.
Therefore, UC-AFT has decided to opt back in to the program so as to allow you to make this choice for yourself. Within the next few months, you will be getting notification of this from Staywell, and you can fully participate, if you choose to do so. (Note that this program is voluntary, and there is a modest financial incentive to participate.)
The union leadership does NOT, however, make any recommendation about whether you should or should not participate. Some concerns remain. Though the UC health plans indicated, in writing, that the health survey information Staywell collects would not affect future insurance eligibility or rates, we remain concerned about possible harm to our members, despite this pledge. In addition, we are wary of electronic data security issues at the health plans.
The Staywell health assessment survey will ask participants if they will allow their survey information to be released to their health plan. If you do decide to participate, we strongly encourage you to refuse permission when you are faced with this choice.
Most other UC unions have continued to opt-out of the Staywell program on behalf of all those they represent. These unions have expressed concern about the possible future misuse of the wellness plan to determine individual health insurance premiums and coverage for UC employees. For example, some private sector employers now require that employees participate in wellness plans in order to receive lower insurance premiums and co-pays.
UC management has not promised us that they will never implement a similar practice, and therefore, UC-AFT shares our fellow UC unions' concerns about possible abuses of a wellness plan. We have told UCOP that while we support the access to health information and counseling now offered by the Staywell plan, we will strongly oppose any future misuse of such programs.
In the end, the UC-AFT Executive Board was persuaded that the Staywell program has adequate privacy protections and wanted to allow members to decide for themselves whether to make use of this wellness program. As you make your own decisions about whether or not to participate in Staywell, please be mindful of the issues outlined above.
Karen Sawislak
Executive Director
University Council--AFT
274 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612
510-740-0145
fax: 510-808-0378
AFT Local 1966: Riverside
http://www.aft1966.org/article.php/20080310150016725