Do you have to take a pre-offer or post-offer medical exam or a fitness-for-duty test?
Are you asking for family leave to care for your mother because she's dying of breast cancer?
Did you write on your Facebook page about your family history of heart attacks?
Are there questions about your family's health history when you sign up for your company's wellness incentives?
Answer yes to any of those questions, and you're at the intersection where your privacy crosses path with your employers' interest in your health.
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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this month published final regulations for the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.
The law, passed in 2008, is designed to prevent misuse of your genetic health information for employment purposes. The law bans employers from asking for such information except in certain circumstances.
And those circumstances are likely for many workers.
For example, employers may ask for and get certification of family medical details to verify legitimate use of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Employers also may inadvertently acquire your health information -- as long as they don't misuse it. For example, bosses who are "friended" on employees' Facebook pages often see far more private information than they want or need.
Employers' interests in controlling health insurance costs -- by encouraging employees to participate in health risk assessments and wellness programs -- may make them privy to personal details, too.
That also is protected, provided they allow employees to opt out of answering certain assessment questions if answers would reveal protected genetic information.
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act requires a learning curve for employment law attorneys, human resource officers and company wellness-plan administrators.
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Meanwhile, all workers are wise to have some knowledge about their rights under the act.
The EEOC has posted a Q&A about the law online at this link.
