Administrative Agencies
Administrative agencies are an important part of the governmental system. They could be defined as organizations, created for solving important social problems. These agencies interact directly with people from the society and provide them required services. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the public agencies, related to the Department of Health & Human Services. The main purpose of this agency is “to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S.” (“CDC,” 2014, para. 1). The agency’s functions are to detect and prevent dangerous disease spreading, to apply novel technologies, and to develop healthy behavior of the community.
Main questions to the CDC:
- Does the organization provide funding for the healthcare researches? What are the criteria for research program preferences?
- What is the list of CDC’s actions in case of emergency? What legal measures could it take?
- What is the agency’s policy according to the vaccination? Does it have the power to oblige parents to vaccinate their children?
Administrative agencies are important for the society due to its role in urgent social problems solving. These agencies provide their services directly to people in the community. Dealing with current problems directly, administration of the agency changes existing rules and regulations according to the particular issue to make it more efficient. Another important role of agencies is investigations and scientific researches. Agencies provide funding for research projects and apply the obtained results into the practice. However, some people believe that administrative agencies have too much power. This suggestion is based on the lack of regulation of these agencies work. In fact, administrative agencies have the power of legislation, execution, and judgment in the areas of their responsibility. It leads to the almost uncontrolled power of the administrative agencies.
Regulatory Flexibility Act
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) was passed with the purpose to protect employees from the discrimination on the genetic information basis, in particular, on the basis of family diseases and inclinations. According to this act, employers have no rights to request the employee’s genetic information, share it among staff members or use it for the job transferring or firing. However, this act has some limitations, in particular, according to the health insurance and wellness providing.
Mainly, this act could be related to the employee’s individual health insurance plan development. The problem is that insurance companies are not supposed to request the information about family based diseases with the purpose to provide better healthcare services. The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) could be applied in this situation to regulate the GINA’s effect on these companies. In particular, some of the GINA’s aspect could be avoided. For example, insurances companies might be able to request information, related to the employee’s health condition, however, might not be able to share it with the employer.
For example, one of the public comments (, related to the GINA, was from the company which provides wellness plans for the workers and their families. To develop the optimal plan, the company should obtain the data according to the employees’ genetic information, in particular, according to the metabolic diseases. After the GINA was passed, the company could not provide their services without, in fact, breaking the law. It could be stated that organization’s concerns are rational. Without this particular information, it is impossible to develop the program for health improvement which would be useful. Moreover, it is possible to even to impair the situation without the required information. Thus, it could be supposed that the RFA could be applied to regulate the GINA in this particular case.
References
CDC. Mission, role, and pledge. (2014). Web.