Question: An employee told most of his coworkers about his recent diagnosis of a serious health condition, then came to HR to request adjustments to his schedule and work duties while undergoing treatment. HR emailed the employee’s medical records to his supervisor, along with an explanation of the specific accommodations the employee needs. Now the employee is upset because he didn’t want his supervisor to know about the medical condition. Since the employee told almost everyone else at work about his condition, isn’t it legal for HR to talk about it, too?
Answer: No (with a few exceptions). An employer must keep medical information confidential, even if an employee has told almost everyone else in the workplace that same information. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers that collect and maintain medical information to keep it separate from personnel files, and to treat it as confidential, regardless of whether an applicant or employee has a disability. Employers can share only limited information with supervisors or safety personnel. Disclosure of unnecessary medical information, such as diagnoses and treatments, may violate the ADA’s confidentiality rules (see the ADA regulations at 29 CFR 1630.14).
Share Only What’s Needed: Protecting Medical Privacy in ADA Accommodations
For reasonable accommodation under the ADA, an employer should tell a supervisor only enough details necessary to facilitate accommodation. For example, if an employee bulged a disk in his back lifting weights at the gym, tells all his coworkers he threw his back out, and comes to HR with a doctor’s note stating he can only lift up to 10 pounds for 12 weeks, HR cannot disclose to the employee’s supervisor that he has a bulged disk, and maybe not even that he has a back injury. Assuming the employer can reasonably accommodate the lifting restriction, HR should only share with the employee’s supervisor that the employee cannot lift more than 10 pounds. The employee may already have told the supervisor, or the supervisor may have heard about it from other employees, but HR shouldn’t be the one to disclose the medical information.
Confidential Means Confidential—Even If Everyone Already Knows
Employees may tell their coworkers about their medical issues for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s just to find comfort among peers, especially after a serious medical diagnosis. As an employer, you can be supportive and you may have to provide reasonable accommodations (as long as the accommodations don’t cause an undue hardship or a direct threat to health or safety). However, you must keep the employee’s medical information confidential even if it’s already public knowledge. It’s the employee’s information to share, not the employer’s. See our Legal Guides, ADA: Medical Inquiries and Exams of Applicants and Employees and Personnel Files and Access to Employment Records, and contact your Vigilant Law Group employment attorney with questions.
