Tobacco users were outraged to find they would pay a $25 monthly surcharge for all of 2012, even if they quit mid-year. That policy has been modified — employees can stop paying when they quit, and the insurer will take them at their word.
"There was no incentive for them to quit mid-year," Public Employees Benefit Board Deputy Administrator Kathy Loretz said. "Now there's an incentive for people who make the good choice and stop smoking."
Directors of the state Public Employees Benefit Board voted unanimously last week to change the policy.
The questions were part of a new state program that uses financial incentives to encourage healthy behavior — and financial penalties if state workers refuse to participate in education programs designed to curb the behavior.
The second set of questions, involving firearms, riled gun owners who were asked questions about the manner in which their firearms are stored. The health assessment questionnaire asked whether respondents speed, wear seatbelts or drink and drive.
The firearms questions are part of insurer Kaiser Permanente's standard health questionnaire used across the nation, Loretz said. "It's a safety question, but some people were offended by it," Loretz said.
State Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli said the questions were a "violation of the right to privacy and the Second Amendment right to bear arms" that "ironically put worker's health and wellness at risk."
"If this information was ever lost or leaked, criminals could find in one convenient database a list of which individuals own guns, and how accessible those guns are," Ferrioli said in a statement. "This question is utterly inappropriate."
The benefits board asked Kaiser to remove the firearm question.
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