ROHP Privacy Policy
BU Research Occupational Health Program (ROHP) healthcare providers evaluate you medically to ensure you can safely carry out your work duties and to document medically required work restrictions. ROHP also evaluates and may treat or coordinate treatment of your workplace injuries and exposures, certify medical leaves of absence and medically approve your return from medical leaves of absence.
ROHP is committed to protecting the privacy of your identifiable health information (“your health information”), and to ensuring you understand how your health information is protected, used and disclosed.
Privacy of Your ROHP Records
Massachusetts law protects the privacy of your health information. In addition, licensed healthcare providers are ethically obligated to protect the privacy of your health information. ROHP is not covered by the federal medical privacy law known as HIPAA, but it follows similar privacy practices
Routine Disclosures by ROHP
ROHP typically communicates the work-related results of occupational medical evaluations or treatment as “Work Status Reports.” We send (or make available) these reports to you, your manager, Human Resources, and others who need to know, as described below. We include only the minimum necessary medical information in these reports. Examples include:
Post-Offer Medical Examinations
ROHP will notify you and your supervisor of the results of your Post-Offer Medical Examination so that you and your supervisor will know if you are approved for your job duties or if there are any restrictions. Specific medical information is not included in this notice.
Medical Clearance for Specific Duties
ROHP may send notice of your medical clearance status to persons at BU responsible for enforcing requirements. For example, ROHP will communicate via the Environmental Health and Safety RIMS (Research Information Management) database that a person is medically cleared for potential exposures, e.g.
- may work with yellow fever virus;
- may have same-room access to human study participants);
- is medically cleared for access to work with specific agents or in specific environments; or
- is medically cleared to work with non-human primates with potential exposure to Herpes B virus.
Leaves of Absence
When ROHP determines you need to be out of work due to a work-related or personal medical condition or injury, or clears you to return to work following a leave, we will send (or make available) a Work Status Report to you, your manager, and Human Resources.
Work Restrictions
When ROHP determines restrictions in your duties are medically indicated due to your physical, medical, or mental health condition, we will send (or make available to) you, your manager and HR a Work Status Report. ROHP will not send underlying medical documentation and the form will not include information about your underlying medical conditions.
Workplace Safety
If you are injured on the job, ROHP may provide a report of the incident to BU Environmental Health and Safety for the purpose of reporting to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”), as required by law.
Reports to Workers’ Compensation Carrier
If your workplace injury entails time off work or medical expenses, ROHP will report the incident to BU’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier in order to facilitate workers’ compensation case management.
Public Health Reporting
ROHP is required by law to report certain lab exposures and incidents to public health authorities such as the Boston Public Health Commission and the MA Department of Public Health, and such reports may include your health information.
Respirator Medical Clearance
If your job duties require wearing a respirator, ROHP will review your answers to an OSHA-mandated medical questionnaire to ensure you are medically fit to wear a respirator. Following that evaluation, ROHP communicates to BU Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) through RIMS (Research Information Management System) whether you are medically approved to wear a respirator. This notice does not include specific medical information.
Communication with Your Other Healthcare Providers
ROHP may communicate with your other healthcare providers. For example, if you give ROHP documentation from your Primary Care Provider and we find it unclear, we may contact your Primary Care Provider for clarification. When ROHP orders laboratory or other testing, ROHP will communicate that order and receive results from the testing facility. ROHP may also communicate with your other healthcare providers (at BU or elsewhere) for purposes of coordinating your care and providing you medical treatment. These other healthcare providers also owe you a duty of privacy.
Internal Operations
ROHP may use and disclose health information in its records for activities necessary to operate and manage the clinics, such as performing quality assurance activities and managing staff. This is usually done in a manner that does not identify you. ROHP sometimes uses companies outside of BU to help manage the clinic, and they sometimes require access to medical records. That access is allowed only on a need-to-know-basis, and only the minimum necessary information is available. For example, our electronic medical record is provided by a third party. These third parties are required to maintain the privacy and security of all medical information. We do not bill you or your third-party health insurer for occupational health services, and so do not use your information in connection with billing.
Research Use
We may disclose your health information for research purposes but only when an Institutional Review Board or privacy board has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information and determined that the researcher does not need to obtain your authorization prior to using your health information for research purposes
Law Enforcement Activities and Legal Proceedings
- We may use and disclose your health information if necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to your health and safety or that of another person.
- We may also provide your health information to law enforcement officials, for example, in response to a warrant, investigative demand or similar legal process, or for officials to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person.
- We may disclose your health information to appropriate agencies if we reasonably believe an individual to be a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence.
- We may disclose your health information as required to comply with a court or administrative order.
Other Uses and Disclosures of your Information Required or Permitted by Law
We may disclose your health information when required or permitted by law to:
- The Food and Drug Administration
- Health Oversight Agencies
- National Security and Intelligence Organizations
- Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors
Not every use or disclosure is listed in this Notice, but we have endeavored to provide you the general categories for all of our uses or disclosures of your health information.
Disclosures Pursuant to Your Authorization
We need your written authorization to use or disclose your health information for any purpose not covered by one of the categories above.
Changes to this Notice
This policy is posted on our website. If we change it in future, the change will be posted.
Questions
If you have questions about the privacy of your occupational health information or concerns that your privacy rights have been violated, please contact BU’s Health Information Privacy Officer at HIPAA@BU.edu, or write to us at the following address:
BU Privacy Officer
1 Silber Way, 9th Floor
Boston MA 02215