Does PHIPA apply to occupational health physicians and nurses?
I have long wondered at the answer to this question. Recall that the Personal Health Information Protection Act’s (PHIPA) scope is predominantly the collection, use, and disclosure of personal health information by health information custodians. For the Act to apply, therefore, the people or organization involved must be captured under the definition of health information custodian, and the information involved must be captured in the definition of personal health information. The attached Adjudication Summary is enlightening. This report deals with a complaint made by an employee of a municipality alleging a nurse, apparently a disability case manager for the municipality, disclosed information relating to the employee’s fitness for duty (functional ability) in contravention to the provisions of PHIPA. The information in question was received by the nurse from a third-party insurance carrier and transmitted via email to other municipality employees/contractors involved in return-to-wo
