What are my rights?

[jul496]

What is the name of your state? WV
I am not sure what I can do about this situation, or what my rights really are.

I work for a midsized company that has 3 office location. Our office has only 2 inside employees, myself and my office manager.

I recently recieved an anonymous email from a woman that has been chatting on yahoo with my boss. She included transcripts of recent chats she has had with him where my boss has been discussing my personal life and medical information. Such as a mammogram, my pregnancy and my husbands near death.

This info was given to my boss under both a work place enviroment and personal being he pretended to be friends with my husband and myself. The chats are very derogitory and mean in nature and this woman was quite angry with the remarks and emailed them to me. He makes staements like how they will talk about me at the monthly meetings at the Corporate office, how I am a bitch and need my head examined" how stupid I am etc...the thing that makes me the most angry is the discussion of my mammogram that was done by his wife's office. His wife works for Mammography at the local hospital.
There is alot more to this but this is the main info I care to give right now. What are my rights as to him discussing my private medical and personal info with people online in yahoo chat?

Thanks,
WVworker

 

[Beth3]

If specific medical information was released by a medical practitioner's office, then you likely have a case against them and the individual (the wife) who blabbed. This is not my area of the law but I am aware there are strict laws protecting patient medical information that doctors, hospitals, clinics, labs, etc. are subject to.

As far as the rest, well, your employer is entitled to their opinion of you and are free to share those opinions among members of management. They are "parties in interest" in your employment and have a high degree of protection against claims of slander, etc., provided they don't knowingly broadcast lies about you outside themselves and you suffer damages as a result.

I think you do have good reason to go to senior management and complain about the e-mails and entire incident however. You should also keep in mind that whatever your boss stated in the e-mail regarding how they spoke about you at monthly meetings may not be at all true. Your boss is clearly not someone with much in the way of ethics and professional behavior (or even smarts) and consequently may have fabricated or greatly exaggerated any discussion that took place for reasons known only to himself.

 

[jul496]

Clarifacation

The person who sent me the email sent a copy of the chat session that was between my boss and her...he was the one making these statements and talking about personal info that only HE was aware of. Yes he has a right to his personal opinion as anyone does, but he does not have a right to discuss my medical information with people on yahoo during work hours. The transcript has date and times and they are all during work hours. In fact when I was at my doctors appointment on Thursday he had that information in that chat session. This woman would not have known this. The only people that knew about my mammogram, a serious incident with my husband, and my pregnancy was my boss.

I had told no one else about these things.
What he chooses to do outside of work I can not do anything about, but during work hours I can I would assume. Some of the statements made were not even true, but could made me look terrible to someone not knowing me, this lady staed that she felt he had crossed the line in discussing this stuff with her, and you can tell in the chat session she was very uncomfortable.

Anyway, I suppose there is not much I can really do, but spending hours on chat instead of working is leaving me to pick up all his slack!

Thanks,

 

[jls1znv99]

Regardless of when and where he discussed your medical information is a clear cut violation of the Patients Privacy Act and under which the hospital is liable for suit and the Doctor that divuldged this information as well Dont assume everything but it is possible that she could very well have her degree (s) taken or removed, The hardest lessons are always the most costly to confront Good Luck

 

[Beth3]

Medical information your employer has actually isn't protected by patient confidentiality laws. HIPPA reg's apply to diagnostic and related information the employer may receive relative to the employer's group health plan but that's not the case here.

You told your boss some of the information about yourself and presumably the rest his wife told him. Youir boss behaving unprofessionally and having a big mouth is not illegal. The only cause of action I potentially see is against the wife (who works for a medical provider) and HER employer for violating patient confidentially laws - she and her employer are subject to those laws, not your boss.