From asking about potential symptoms to vaccination status, the share of employers collecting health information from their workforces has grown. The trend is drawing concerns from some management-side attorneys amid the reopening of physical workspaces.
A March survey by Littler Mendelson of 1,275 employer representatives found that 74% of respondents were either currently tracking or planning to track workers’ vaccination status. Even among respondents who did not have a vaccination policy in place, 54% said their organizations were tracking vaccination status.
But given intermingling local, state and federal requirements on health information privacy, it is important for employers to note that they “may not have done the most careful job” of collecting and storing such information, according to Devjani Mishra, shareholder at Littler.
In its analysis of the survey results, Littler said most respondents were using spreadsheets or other internal software, both of which, it noted, could raise data privacy issues.
Sources who spoke to HR Dive discussed the laws that apply to medical information collected as part of the reopening process and the best practices employers may take to complete such collections without running afoul of federal, state and local laws.
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