Medical Confidentiality And The ADA

The following is information employers should know about regarding medical confidentiality and the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Employers must keep any medical information on applicants or employees confidential, with the following limited exceptions:

• Supervisors and managers may be told about necessary restrictions on the work or duties of the employee and about necessary ADA accommodations.
• First aid and safety personnel may be told if the disability might require emergency treatment.
• Government officials investigating compliance with the ADA must be given relevant information on request.
• Employers may give information to state workers' compensation offices, state second injury funds, or workers' compensation insurance carriers in accordance with state workers' compensation laws, and
• Employers may use the information for insurance purposes.

Medical information must be collected and maintained on separate forms and in separate medical files. An employer should not place any medically-related material in an employee's non-medical personnel file.

If an employer wants to put a document in a personnel file, and that document happens to contain some medical information, the employer must simply remove the information from the document before putting it in the personnel file.

Also, an employer must keep medical information confidential even if someone is no longer an applicant or is not longer an employee.

For more information on medical confidentiality, you might like to read How Can We Maintain Confidentiality of Medical Records? This articles offers a list of questions and answers that employers and HR managers will find useful. Another excellent article is Confidentiality of Employee Medical Records written by the law firm, Bond Schoeneck & King.

Additional information about the Americans with Disability Act can be found in earlier articles in this blog.

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Comments

[Jessica Mulcahy]

I was hospitalized this week for several ongoing symptoms i was experiencing. My supervisor shared detail about my symptoms with all of the staff where i work and information about my health was communicated to parents of children that i work for at the day care facility. I had no knowledge of this because i was still off of work. A parent contacted me about this at home. My symptoms were downplayed by my supervisor and communicated incorrectly to other people. I return to work on monday but am unsure of how to handle this situation. I know that my employer should not be sharing details of my illness with other people. Are there specific laws that highlight this area?