Can my employer share my medical information?

Question

Accepted Answer

Short answer: The provided Arizona sources address this question only partially. Most of them regulate *health care providers and health entities*, not employers directly.

What the sources do say about employers:

- In the earned paid sick time context, an employer may not require disclosure of details of an employee's (or family member's) health information as a condition of providing sick time, and if an employer possesses such health information, it must treat it as confidential and not disclose it except to the affected employee or with that employee's permission .
- For workplace drug and alcohol testing, the employer's written testing policy must include a statement of the employer's policy regarding the confidentiality of test results, and employees have the right to explain a positive test result in a confidential setting .

What the sources say about others who hold your medical information:

- Medical records and payment records are privileged and confidential, and a health care provider may disclose them only as authorized by state or federal law or by written authorization signed by the patient or the patient's health care decision maker .
- A person who receives medical records from a provider may not redisclose them without the patient's written authorization, unless otherwise authorized by law .
- Communicable disease and HIV-related information is subject to additional confidentiality protections, with disclosure permitted only in enumerated circumstances .

Important gap: None of the provided sources directly state a general rule governing when an *employer* may share employee medical information outside the sick-time and drug-testing contexts described above . Whether an employer may share your medical information is also commonly governed by federal law (such as HIPAA and the ADA), which these Arizona sources do not cover; for that question, please consult a licensed attorney.