S.B. 1264 - Wellness Programs

• Authorizes healthcare insurers, employers, and Medicaid programs to offer voluntary wellness programs to participants, with participation required to be optional and available to all similarly-situated individuals.

• Permits wellness programs to include health risk assessments, smoking cessation, weight management, stress management, worker injury prevention, nutrition education, and fitness incentive programs.

• Allows permissible rewards including reimbursement for smoking cessation or weight management programs, health club memberships, and monetary rewards as gift cards for health-promoting products or services.

• Prohibits non-permissible incentives such as discounts to health plan premiums, rebates, conditions on coverage eligibility, adverse employment actions, bonuses based on participation rates, or compensation adjustments tied to individual participation.

• Requires personal health information obtained through wellness programs to be protected under HIPAA, prohibits sharing with employers or prospective employers except to verify reward eligibility, and prohibits sharing with health insurance providers unless voluntarily authorized in writing by the participant.