Protecting Employees’ Health Data; New York Times, 3/26/16

Editorial Board, New York Times; Protecting Employees’ Health Data:

"Many states prohibit employers from firing people because they smoke. Michigan and several cities ban discrimination based on weight. But federal law offers little recourse to workers fired because of data showing a pattern of unhealthy behavior.

To address this problem, a group of legal scholars has called for federal legislation that would bar companies from hiring or firing people based on health information gleaned through health data services. It would also ensure employees’ right to see the information these services collected about them and to have that information deleted.

As data analysis techniques evolve, such services will be able to draw ever more sophisticated conclusions about people based on their health care use. Americans need federal protections to make sure that those conclusions don’t cost them their jobs."