Medical Privacy Laws in the Workplace
Medical records related to a person’s medical history are made when a person receives treatment from a health professional. The same documents can cover medical history, lifestyle choices like smoking or participating in high-risk activities, and family medical history. It is not rare that these include lab tests, prescribed medications and results of a medical procedure that the was received.
Medical privacy represents implications related to privacy for any employee, if there is a chance the employer is accessing this information for some reason. If this does occur, the law in the US state of California is triggered and there are key points of how this takes place.
When Can an Employer See My Medical Information?
The law in California allows the employer to access medical information about their employee, but it must be related to a legitimate business reason. The information can be volunteered, like in the case of sick leave, or it can be requested for things like forms used for workers compensation claims.
In any case, the information can be attained by the employer, but it both must be related to the business and has to be kept private inside of the organization.
Americans with Disabilities Act states that employers cannot ask for medical tests as a basis of getting a job, meaning that tests cannot be asked for as a requirement for employment. Additionally, the same act forbids anyone from demanding their employees to take a medical test as a way of avoiding them from losing their job.
What Is HIPAA?
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) represents a standard that is valid nationwide and which regulates the problem of privacy of health information. In other words, it shows the employers how medical records are disclosed and used.
It states that employers must give notice when dealing with written privacy procedures, restrict the use of this information inside of their organization and finally, it asks for the appointment of a dedicated privacy officer and the training of their staff on this issue.
With this information, anyone will be a lot more suited to understand any relevant issue related to medical privacy in the workplace and will allow them to better prepare themselves and protect their personal information in the same working environment.
A business that wants to collect medical information from individuals for direct marketing purposes must first get written consent and must clearly disclose how the information will be used.
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