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Get healthy - or else

Here is some food for thought for a Monday morning. Companies in the USA are taking more than an active interest in the health of their employees. Of course the employer has more than an eye on its bottom line in all of this - rather than the health and well being of its employee.

BusinessWeek reports on a trend which is certain to catch on in Australia. Maybe it's good, perhaps not. As the article points out, the active intervention of the employer saved one man's life. Whatever, it all raises interesting questions like the privacy of information on the the employee's health.

"Two stories—one man saved by the 11th-hour intervention of his employer; another fired on his 30th birthday for smoking—capture the dilemma facing companies around the country. How do executives looking to cut medical costs persuade employees to take better care of themselves without killing morale and spawning lawsuits? It's a question that's very much on the mind of Scotts CEO Jim Hagedorn, who acknowledges his company's wellness program is controversial. "Jack Welch told me: Man, you have balls of steel,'" says Hagedorn. "This is an area where CEOs are afraid to go. A lot of people are watching to see how badly we get sued."

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