Excerpt from: NWI.com (click for full article)
One given principle of the Americans With Disabilities Act provides that employee medical information obtained from “medical examinations and inquiries” must be treated as a confidential medical record. The issue is what is an inquiry?
Consider these facts: an employee failed to report to work. The employer sent the employee an email, asking him what he was doing. The employee replied with an email stating he had a severe migraine.
Shortly thereafter, the employee quit his job. Future employers contacted the former employer and asked for a reference. The former employer responded by saying that the ex-employee had “medical conditions” involving migraines, but that this wasn’t an issue in his job performance.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against the former employer, claiming that its disclosure of the medical condition was a per se violation of the ADA. The employer defended by arguing that its receipt of the employee’s medical information, in the email the employee initiated, was not obtained from a medical inquiry.
The court ruled for the employer. It rejected the EEOC’s argument that any communication between an employer and an employee, initiated by the employer, which results in the disclosure of medical information is an “inquiry.”
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