As a wellness lawyer, I hear all kinds of complaints from all kinds of different stakeholders in the wellness industry. Lately, I have been hearing from people wronged by health and business coaches. These individuals have been hurt emotionally and financially by unethical coaches. This emotional or financial injury may occur because the coach oversteps […]

Many people may not realize that some states have workplace wellness program laws; it’s not just the province of the federal government. Massachusetts happens to have one of the most comprehensive workplace wellness program laws, and it may just set the bar for other states to follow. Specifically, Massachusetts has a law that applies to […]

Most of the conversation around workplace wellness compliance has focused on federal law compliance, such as with HIPAA, ACA, ADA, and GINA. But some states have also enacted laws that are important to workplace wellness program compliance. This blog post will highlight two state laws and examine whether more such laws are needed. New York […]

On May 9, 2023, the IRS Office of Chief Counsel issued Memorandum #202323006 which clarified whether certain wellness incentive payments are subject to the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) and federal income tax withholding (FITW), or collectively known as “employment taxes. The scenario described by the IRS is this: An […]

On April 17, 2020, Todd Maness (“Maness”), a police officer employed by the Village of Pinehurst in North Carolina, sued his employer for terminating his employment. Why was he terminated? According to Maness, the Village fired him because he refused to fill out a health risk assessment which was created by a wellness vendor, SiteMed. […]

As predicted by our law firm, the word is getting out that workplace wellness programs are a hot target for employment-based lawsuits. In the past week, legal activity in two separate workplace wellness programs located in Illinois has ramped up. This blog will give a summary of both pending cases. AARP v. Austin Industries The […]

A recent article criticized the effectiveness of workplace wellness programs. It noted that although 88% of large employers (defined as employers with 200 or more workers) that offered health benefits also offered some type of workplace wellness program. That is a high percentage of employers that offer worksite wellness programs to their employees. The article […]