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genetics generic

A new pecker introduced past Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and canonical by the Business firm Means and Means Committee would allow corporations to forcefulness employees to undergo genetic testing — and then share those results with tertiary parties. In theory, this is already illegal, thank you to a 2008 police known as GINA. This type of behavior is besides regulated past the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

The new House pecker, HR 1313, gets around these issues past preemptively declaring that workplace wellness programs offered in conjunction with an employer'due south sponsored health care plan shall be considered to exist in compliance with GINA, the ADA, and other workplace protections. Given that the relevant department of GINA (department 202(b)(2)) specifically states that it shall be unlawful for employers to gather genetic information on employees without the express permission and consent of the employee in question, the GOP just wrote a privacy-shredding exception into a bill then quietly passed that neb through commission.

Workplace health programs accept been controversial because they largely don't seem to work, but remain popular as a method of pushing healthcare costs on to employees. Historically, companies have been allowed to offer these programs (and to enforce fiscal penalties on employees that reject to run across their goals). But Hr 1313 goes farther than simply allowing genetic profiling of employees because an employer offers insurance coverage. The bill actually stipulates that whatsoever company with whatever program with a workplace health component can mandate genetic collection whether it provides insurance or not. It likewise states:

[T]he drove of data about the manifested disease or disorder of a family member shall non be considered an unlawful acquisition of genetic information with respect to another family unit member as role of a workplace wellness program. [accent added]

Under the GOP's bill, which has already passed through one committee vote with 22 Republicans voting for it and 17 Democrats against, it would be explicitly legal for companies to collect genetic information on your family unit members. It'due south also legal for them to share that information with third parties, in complete and full abrogation of the privacy protections passed in 2008.

The American Society for Human Genetics has blasted the neb:

H.R.1313 would finer repeal these protections by assuasive employers to ask employees invasive questions about their and their families' health, including genetic tests they, their spouses, and their children may take undergone. GINA'southward requirement that employees' genetic information collected through a workplace wellness program only be shared with health care professionals would no longer utilise.

Hour 1313 is a travesty. Information technology guts previous protections passed by Congress intended to protect the virtually fundamentally personal data whatever human possesses — their own genetic code. It would permit corporations to share that data with 3rd parties for assay without stripping it of identifying information (GINA forbids this, but 1313 supersedes GINA). It would allow companies to levy fines up to 30% of the cost of health premiums on the employees who neglect to cooperate. The ASHG notes that the average premium cost for employees in 2022 was $18,142, pregnant families could face an boosted $five,443 in premium costs per twelvemonth for refusing to paw over their genetic and health information.