Seff v. Broward County, Florida

Broward County (county) offered its employees a group health-insurance plan and an option to participate in an employee wellness program sponsored by the county’s health insurer, Coventry Healthcare (Coventry). Coventry offered the program only as part of its group health-plan contract with the county, and the program was available exclusively to enrollees in the group plan. The county advertised the program in its employee handouts. The employee wellness program involved a biometric screening of the employee’s blood and a health-risk questionnaire. If an employee was found to have certain diseases or conditions, the employee could join a disease-management coaching program to receive co-pay waivers for certain medications. The wellness program was not required for group-plan enrollees, but any employee enrolled in the group health plan who opted out of the wellness program had a fee taken out of each paycheck. Bradley Seff (plaintiff) was a county employee enrolled in the group health plan who declined to participate in the wellness program. The county took the fee out of Seff’s paychecks for several months, and Seff filed suit against the county in federal district court. Seff claimed that the wellness program’s biometric screening and health questionnaire constituted a prohibited, nonvoluntary medical examination and disability-related inquiry under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Seff and the county moved for summary judgment, and the district court granted the county’s motion. The court found that the ADA’s safe-harbor provision exempted the wellness program from any ADA restrictions. Seff appealed to the Eleventh Circuit.