Corporate wellness programs, a threat to privacy?

Genetic testing is increasingly offered as a benefit in employer-sponsored health and wellness programs. Despite rapidly growing popularity of wellness programs, there is little evidence to support the programs’ purported health benefits and reduction in health care costs. Whitney S. McDonald, a scientist at the Genomic Medicine Institute, Geisinger, and her colleagues argue that privacy concerns and problems with interpreting test results without professional genetic counseling, could arise from the inclusion of genetic testing in corporate wellness programs. They performed a Google search in 2019 to identify fifteen vendors with corporate wellness programs involving genetics. A review of the vendor websites revealed an overall lack of transparency regarding data sharing practices and evidence to back claims. Less than half of the vendors examined acknowledged any sort of risk or limitations of their products and genetic services. The results highlight the challenges facing employee-rights advocates and potential employee users, when evaluating the use of genetics in employer-sponsored wellness programs.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

McDonald, W. S., Wagner, J. K., Deverka, P. A., Woods, L. A., Peterson, J. F., & Williams, M. S. (2020). Genetic testing and employer-sponsored wellness programs: An overview of current vendors, products, and practices. Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine, e1414. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/mgg3.1414