CVS to workers: Tell us how much you weigh or it'll cost you $600 a year

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CVS to workers: Tell us how much you weigh or it'll cost you!  SHAME SHAME!

Via Bitch Media - 

"Workplace wellness incentive programs are not a new phenomenon, but the Internet is in turmoil today over a recent announcement by the national drugstore chain CVS. Beginning in May, CVS will require employees on the company’s insurance plan to undergo health testing—including body mass indexing and blood glucose testing—or face a $600 annual penalty.  

The company’s rationale? Coercing employees to submit to health testing will provide incentive for workers to get—and stay—in shape. Employees’ health information will not be accessible to the company itself, but rather to a third party responsible for administering company insurance benefits. Reportedly, with the advent of Obamacare and rising healthcare costs, practices like this threaten to become more commonplace in the corporate environment. 

Attention everyone, everywhere. If you’ve been struggling for years to get in shape, whatever that means to you, you can just quit whatever it is you’re doing right now because CVS has got it all figured out. It turns out whatever silliness you were attempting, you just didn’t have the proper incentive. Except, as it happens, this regimen already exists and it’s called humiliation and fat-shaming. Have someone tell you you’re overweight, or pay a major fine.

Then there’s the next major issue. CVS, which really should by keyed in to the latest, or at the very least some,health news, ought to know Body Mass Index (BMI) is by no means an accurate indicator of health. As Keith Devlin over at NPR pointed out back in 2009, there are at least 10 good reasons BMI is entirely bogus, not the least of which is it hinges on the notion of the “average man.”