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I am currently using medication for a non-life threatening, but serious physical health condition that can sometimes affect my ability to sleep well and thus affect my productivity. The medication does NOT affect my productivity or mood. I don't know how much time it will take for the condition to go away or if stronger intervention is needed. As an aside, I lost a significant amount of weight and became underweight because of this condition. My weight fluctuates by large amounts, but I never end up looking emaciated.

The recruiter has asked me to fill and e-mail them a form which will reveal all the things that I told you about. This form seems to come from the health insurance company. I had filled a similar form for a previous employer, but I don't remember if it asked such questions.

I am wondering if I need to disclose this information to the recruiter. I am concerned that the recruiter could easily use this information against me, because of the terms in my contract. I am on a short-term contract with the possibility of full-time hire. I even started for working a few days and learned that junior contractors have been let go by the client, well before the end of contract, due to various reasons. I don't want to end up like them because of this form.

Do I need to e-mail my form to the recruiter or can I just send it to the health insurance company instead, without making it look odd to them ? I don't think that the recruiter needs to know all this because I am doing software development and not a job that requires lifting heavy things or being alert all the time (eg. pilot).

IDrinkandIKnowThings
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sid smith
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  • I certainly wouldn't be sharing any personal information until I'd accepted an offer. And any company with half a brain wouldn't want the information because it's going to open them up to all sorts of legal issues surrounding disability legislation and the like. If you have accepted an offer, is this recruiter a 3rd party of simply part of Human Resources? – Dan Jun 22 '14 at 21:38
  • @Dan - I have accepted the offer by e-mail, but still sending them all the documentation. I have worked for a few days at the client. The recruiter is third party. – sid smith Jun 22 '14 at 22:17
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    @sidsmith - The health insurance company doesn't have a relationship with you (yet); contacting them directly is not good form. On the other hand, if you're not legally obligated to reveal personal health information in your state/country of residence, refrain from doing so. If you honestly believe with any certainty that your condition will not severely adversely affect your performance, you don't have to tell them anything. Possibly related: http://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/11396/2536 – kolossus Jun 22 '14 at 22:53
  • @kolossus - In it's current state, my health problem should not affect me on more than 5-6 random days in a month. But, if it gets out of control, then I could be hospitalized for a week. So, I was thinking of just leaving those fields blank. If I do that, then the only concern would be that it could affect my coverage. – sid smith Jun 22 '14 at 22:57
  • Overlap with http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/27512/a-temp-agency-is-asking-me-to-release-all-my-medical-records-should-i-be-suspic –  Jun 24 '14 at 14:11
  • does this recruiter work directly for the company ? – Neuromancer Jun 23 '18 at 22:11

1 Answers1

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Since you are in the USA, I'd respond to the request with something like

I assume this form should actually go straight back to the health insurance company, so that <recruiting company> doesn't have to deal with all the HIPAA issues surrounding protecting PHI on its servers and so on. Could you send me the address for submitting this directly?

That way you sort of frame it as that you want to send it directly to avoid them having a problem as opposed to not wanting the person in question to see your information.

PurpleVermont
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    +1 for mentioning PHI. But in most jurisdictions, health data held by employers isn't covered by HIPAA / HITEC / ARRA. If you disclose it to them it leaks out from under the PHI shield. Hopefully the recruiter doesn't know that. – O. Jones Jun 23 '14 at 00:01
  • Interesting, @OllieJones, I did not know that. But if the recruiter does know that and explains it to the applicant, the applicant could then ask something like, "In that case, how do you plan to protect my health information if I send it through you? I don't mean to be difficult, but I'd rather not end up with my private information just floating around out there." (tho that may tip-off that there is info they'd rather not share). There's no legit reason for the employer to handle health info intended for the insurance company, and most honest companies would rather avoid the responsibility. – PurpleVermont Jun 23 '14 at 00:34
  • @PurpleVermont - Or just refuse to disclose the information in the first place. Your health information isn't something your employeer needs to know. – Donald Jun 23 '14 at 11:15
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    @Ramhound I agree that that is possible, but I think the OP wanted to not necessarily let on that they didn't want to disclose their medical information, because even knowing that might represent a red flag to the recruiter, who might wonder if whatever they were hiding would impact their ability to do their job effectively. – PurpleVermont Jun 23 '14 at 20:08
  • @PurpleVermont - Exactly. My illness can be controlled and perhaps even be fixed. It sometimes hurts my efficiency. But, I just need a chance to get back on track while doing all the work that needs to be done. – sid smith Jun 24 '14 at 03:54
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    If you want your would-be employer to provide "reasonable accommodation" under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you'll need to tell them what you need and why. But only after hire. If they discriminate in hiring, they're playing with fire. – O. Jones Jun 24 '14 at 14:36
  • @OllieJones agreed -- I'd disclose, but only after hiring (and if possible, after having proved myself at least a little). It's really hard to prove they discriminated in hiring, so even though that is playing with fire, an employer discriminating based on health info probably won't actually get burned, unless it has happened to multiple people and you can establish a pattern. – PurpleVermont Jun 24 '14 at 14:43
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    @OllieJones This is in ref to "But in most jurisdictions, health data held by employers isn't covered by HIPAA / HITEC / ARRA." Are you sure about that? We're taught that health data held by the emplorer IS under the protection of those acts. The company I work for doesn't accept personal health documentation for exactly that reason. All docs must be sent directly to the health care provider. – CGCampbell Jun 24 '14 at 15:44
  • @PurpleVermont - I was wondering if there is another way to ask your question, without mentioning HIPAA and all that. I need a way to avoid sending my form to the recruiter in a tactful way, ideally without using technical or law related words. I don't want them to have something other than quality of work/performance as an excuse to boot me out. – sid smith Jun 29 '14 at 20:55
  • @sidsmith you can take out the reference to HIPAA but my point was that, given HIPAA, it could actually be a pain in the neck for the company to handle the information, so you would be assuming that they wouldn't want that particular hassle, and are offering to make their lives easier by just sending directly to the health insurance company. If you really don't want to remind them why they probably don't want to be responsible for handling your PHI, you could just start with something like "I have the form all filled out, but I need the address of the health insurance company to send it to." – PurpleVermont Jun 30 '14 at 01:21
  • Then if they reiterate that they want you to send it to them, you could say something like, "Oh, that's surprising. Most companies want to handle employees' personal health information as little as possible to protect the employee's privacy and to save themselves the hassle of having to store it appropriately." But having "pushed back" a second time, I think makes it more obvious that you have something you'd rather not share, which is why I suggest mentioning the reasons up front. You could include the part about privacy and need to store appropriately without using the terms HIPAA and PHI. – PurpleVermont Jun 30 '14 at 01:31