Hiring Manager is telling coworker when someome fails their drug test.

[scm32]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina


I was offered a job at a textile company, that I was employed with years earlier. I had already known most of the co workers that I worked with years ago. The Hiring Manager told me to start working the next day. She said, I could start working before my Drug Test came back. I had used marijuana a few weeks earlier, but thought I would be ok to pass the test. I worked for two nights. Before I was to return on the third night the medical office informed me that I tested positive for marijuana. So I didn't call or report to work that night. I was embarrassed that this employer found out that I had failed the test. I didn't want anyone to know that I had even used marijuana a few weeks earlier. So the thing that upsets me the most was when my Mom text me and said, "I know what you're doing". When I called her about this message that she had text me. She said that its going all over the plant that you failed the test. Now I am pissed. The only people that should've know about my test results was the medical office, the hiring manager, and me. Now it is all over the company. I believe the hiring manager is telling the employees when people fail their drug test. Which I feel is illegal. Do you think a HIPAA violation has been done? Should I call the hiring manager to find out how this breach of privacy happened? Also, can I sue this company? Thanks for your time!

 

[cbg]

Since the employer did not get the results from their self-insured health plan, this did not violate HIPAA, which is nowhere near as broad as most people think it is.

 

[commentator]

When, after working two nights you failed to call in or show up the third night, there were going to be questions on the work floor. "Where's so and so?" And then it's "Aw, I heard he failed the drug test!" and that's how it all gets going, whether it's true or not. You can't keep people from assuming the worst, and talking about it in general. After all, the reason you lost your job was that you failed the drug test. That's not "classified information" in any circle. Cheer up, since you're not a celebrity, it's not in the National Perspirer.