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Full-Text Articles in Law

Permitted Incentives For Workplace Wellness Plans Under The Ada And Gina: The Regulatory Gap, Elizabeth Pendo, Brandon Hall Jan 2019

Permitted Incentives For Workplace Wellness Plans Under The Ada And Gina: The Regulatory Gap, Elizabeth Pendo, Brandon Hall

All Faculty Scholarship

Although workplace wellness plans have been around for decades, they have flourished under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) into a $6 billion-dollar industry. Under PPACA, a “wellness plan” is a program of health promotion or disease prevention offered by an employer that is designed to promote health or prevent disease and which meets the other applicable requirements of that subsection. Employers look to these programs to promote healthy lifestyles, improve the overall health of employees and beneficiaries, and reduce rising healthcare costs. PPACA’s amendments to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) permit employers to offer …


Gina, Big Data, And The Future Of Employee Privacy, Brad Areheart Jan 2019

Gina, Big Data, And The Future Of Employee Privacy, Brad Areheart

Scholarly Works

Threats to privacy abound in modern society, but individuals currently enjoy little meaningful legal protection for their privacy interests. We argue that the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) offers a blueprint for preventing employers from breaching employee privacy. GINA has faced significant criticism since its enactment in 2008: commentators have dismissed the law as ill-conceived, unnecessary, and ineffective. While we concede that GINA may have failed to alleviate anxieties about medical genetic testing, we assert that it has unappreciated value as an employee-privacy statute. In the era of big data, protections for employee privacy are more pressing than protections against …


Use Of Facial Recognition Technology For Medical Purposes: Balancing Privacy With Innovation, Seema Mohapatra Jan 2016

Use Of Facial Recognition Technology For Medical Purposes: Balancing Privacy With Innovation, Seema Mohapatra

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The Anticlassification Turn In Employment Discrimination Law, Brad Areheart Jan 2012

The Anticlassification Turn In Employment Discrimination Law, Brad Areheart

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

The distinction between antisubordination and anticlassification has existed since the 1970s and has been frequently invoked by scholars to advocate for certain readings of antidiscrimination law. The anticlassification principle prohibits practices that classify people on the basis of a forbidden category. In contrast, the antisubordination principle allows classification (or consideration of, for example, race or sex) to the extent the classification is intended to challenge group subordination.While most scholars writing about antisubordination and anticlassification have done so in the context of equal protection, this Article systematically applies antisubordination and anticlassification values to assess recent developments in employment discrimination law and …


Gina, Privacy, & Antisubordination, Brad Areheart Jan 2012

Gina, Privacy, & Antisubordination, Brad Areheart

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

This Essay briefly considers both the current and optimal role of privacy in employment discrimination jurisprudence. The recently passed Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) is illustrative of one way to value privacy through employment discrimination mandates. In particular, GINA includes a prohibition on the use of genetic information in all employment decisions, affording a measure of genetic privacy to potential and current employees.GINA stands in contrast to prior employment discrimination statutes, which have often encouraged or required employers to be knowledgeable of and consider particular identity traits through policies such as reasonable accommodation and affirmative action, and the disparate impact …


Gina's Genotypes, David H. Kaye Jan 2010

Gina's Genotypes, David H. Kaye

Journal Articles

In August 2009, the Board of Trustees of the University of Akron added to the university's employment policy the following proviso: "any applicant may be asked to submit fingerprints or DNA sample for purpose of a federal criminal background check." Although the federal government does not do background checks with DNA, the policy is significant because it highlights a largely unexplored feature of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). GINA generally prohibits employers from asking for "genetic information." The faculty senate and outside commentators have declared that the Akron policy is "of doubtful legality" because it "appears to …


Race, Sex And Genes At Work: Uncovering The Lessons Of Norman-Bloodsaw, Elizabeth Pendo Jan 2010

Race, Sex And Genes At Work: Uncovering The Lessons Of Norman-Bloodsaw, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (“GINA”) is the first federal, uniform protection against the use of genetic information in both the workplace and health insurance. Signed into law on May 21, 2008, GINA prohibits an employer or health insurer from acquiring or using an individual’s genetic information, with some exceptions. One of the goals of GINA is to eradicate actual, or perceived, discrimination based on genetic information in the workplace and in health insurance. Although the threat of genetic discrimination is often discussed in universal terms - as something that could happen to any of us - the …


The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act: Protecting Privacy And Ensuring Fairness In Health Insurance And Employment Practices, Melissa Beyer Jan 2009

The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act: Protecting Privacy And Ensuring Fairness In Health Insurance And Employment Practices, Melissa Beyer

Louis Jackson National Student Writing Competition

Almost two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson, one of this country’s foremost scientists and original thinkers, wrote, ‘[L]aws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As . . . new discoveries are made [and] new truths disclosed...institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the time.’ In this age of genetic breakthroughs, it is essential that our laws catch up with science. We can’t afford to take one step forward in science but two steps backward in civil rights. Our laws must specify, clearly and unambiguously, how genetic information may be used and how …