Wellness at Work: Reconciling the Affordable Care Act with the Americans with Disabilities Act

In an effort to encourage employers to institute employee wellness programs, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("ACA") increases the permissible financial incentives employers may offer their employees in exchange for participation in such programs. The Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), however, prohibits employers from subjecting employees to disability-related medical inquiries and exams unless such inquiries and exams are voluntary. If the financial incentive tied to the participation in a wellness program is so coercive as to render participation involuntary, such an incentive structure violates the ADA. This Note examines the statutory conflict between the ACA and the ADA with regard to incentive-based employee wellness programs. Drawing on statutory and regulatory language, legislative history, and wellness programs in practice, this Note explains the likely discriminatory effects of wellness programs with large financial inducements. This Note concludes that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission must promulgate new regulations that limit the permissible incentives for participatory wellness programs and explicitly address the ADA's applicability to incentive-based wellness program provisions so that both employers and employees may determine their rights under the law.