HIV and Human Resources

[snoofle]

My boyfriend has recently suffered quite a few setbacks in his health (HIV related inflammation in brain and subsequent brain surgery; a grand mal seizure at work; and a few endocrine related issues). As a result of all these issues, he has been placed on federal medical leave by his job until his issues resolved. He also had back surgery in 2006 and has been suffering from terrible back and leg pain for years. He finally got MRIs of his back and hips done and they found severe nerve clumping in his lower back (which could have been exacerbated by his prior bouts of cryptococcus meningitis), as well as necrosis in both hips, which would require bilateral hip replacement surgery. Since all of these things are going on, he has decided it would probably be his best bet to try to get on long term disability till these issues are resolved and hes 100% better to work.

We had his ID doctor fill out some of the initial HR paperwork and his ID put down that he is taking HIV meds, TB meds, and crypto meds. We explained our concern, b/c he has never disclosed to anyone at his workplace, but his doctor said he felt more comfortable disclosing everything, so that it could potentially help his long term disability claim.

My question is, does anyone know if HR representatives have a legal obligation to keep this information private? We do not want his HR telling his boss or really anyone else about this information. We tried asking a few people, but no one seems to have a clear answer. I know it would be a moral and ethical obligation to keep it quiet, but I think it is obvious, that moral and ethics can be overridden. Just want to make sure that any and all info would be protected and private. Any insight would be appreciated.

[Blue75]

From my understanding, everybody who is given confidential medical information falls under the hippa laws. I was told that anyone who discloses any kind of medical status to anyone, couldd be sued. I'm surprised HR even had to be directly involved as it should have gone between doctors & insurance, but I don't know much. Either way, nothing specific needs to be divulged and a "medical condition" is a good enough explanation for the nosey people.

[harleymc]

HR departments are under obligation to not disclose this info. There can be bad apples in every workplace but I'd be 99.999% happy and confident with an HR department knowing.

Lets face it if your brother is going on longterm disability then his boss won't be his boss much longer anyway.