HIPPA & PHI on pre-employment ds& post offer physical exams

Our company requires post offer physicial exams to ensure that prospective ee can perform essential functions of the job. I outsource the exam from an occupational health clinic and I supply the forms for occupational health history, medical history and the physical examination. The occ health clinic notified me today that they will no longer use our forms for the medical examination. They reason that since the form has "medical information" that it is protected health information. They will send verification that the ee passed or failed only. I have always kept this information in a seperate medical file in the first aid office with very limited access. The prospective employee consented to the exam. Our company pays for the physican to complete a physical exam? What am I missing here?

Comments

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  • Just to play devil's advocate here, why do you or would you want let alone need that information? You could probably get numerous varying opinions as to what is and what is not PHI.

    We are paying them (the clinic) to gather any and all pertinent information concerning the EE so I'm sure not going to listen to how may surgeries Sally Jane had or Charlie tell me about his hernias.

    We too require a Post-offer, pre-employment physical. I have insisted that the physicians at the facility we use tour each of our departments and have a first hand knowledge of exactly what we do and how we do it and the physical demands of each position we hire for. When I send a prospective applicant for a physical, all I do is give them directions how to get there give the position the applicant is being considered for and sign giving my authorization for the clinic to perform the physical. I then get a response back from the clinic stating, yes this applicant is medically fit, or no this applicant is not medically fit to perform the duties of this position.
  • As long as the employee consents to the fact their medical information is being sent to you as an employer you should be okay.
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