Kathy Winslow worked as an employment representative in the human resource department of Community Hospital. One day
Question:
Kathy Winslow worked as an employment representative in the human resource department of Community Hospital. One day she received a visit from Ed Smith, business office manager, who was actively recruiting to fill an open cashier position. Ed had already interviewed three candidates who all happened to be current employees seeking transfer. Ed preferred someone with at least a token amount of office experience. One of the transfer applicants, a young woman named June, appeared to Ed to be the only real possibility available. The pertinent part of the conversation between Kathy and Ed proceeded as follows:
Ed: "The only strong possibility you've given me is this young
woman, June. I really don't want to go with someone completely inexperienced. Got anyone else for me? Someone from outside?"
Kathy: "We haven't had any outside applicants, and you've seen all three transfer candidates."
Ed: "I was afraid of that, so I pulled June's personnel file to check her out."
Kathy: "Oh? Who got the file for you? Elaine?"
Ed: "I pulled it myself."
Kathy: "You know you're not supposed to do that. You needed to ask Elaine."
Ed: "I didn't see her, so I helped myself. Anyway, this tells me almost nothing."
Kathy: "Everything's there, attendance records, evaluations, everything."
Ed: "I've heard that June's had a stretch of disability time off and that she was once a workers' comp case. I need the complete personnel file so I can judge whether she's what I want for the job."
Kathy: "You have the whole personnel file. Disability reports and other health-related stuff are in a separate file in the employee health office"
Ed: "That all used to be in one file."
Kathy: "Not anymore."
Ed (impatiently): "Then get me the file from employee health.
Kathy: "Can't do it."
Ed: "Part of that HIPAA nonsense?"
Kathy: "Yes and no. The files were separated before HIPAA, but HIPAA rules apply to the files in employee health."
Ed: "It makes no sense to have parts of the same file kept in two different places. And I need to know whether this June is likely to be reliable.
Kathy: "You're not entitled to the other file. In fact, neither am I. You'll have to go ahead based on your interview and the file you can review here."
Questions
- Why do HIPAA rules apply to the file maintained in the employee health office?
- Why would Ed be forbidden to see the record kept in employee health?
- Because he is not allowed to see June's employee health file, how can Ed judge whether June might or might not be reliable?
- In just a few words, describe the fundamental distinction between the file kept in human resources and the one maintained in employee health.
Managing Human Resources
ISBN: 978-8522104291
12th Edition
Authors: Susan E Jackson, Randall S Schuler, Steve Werner