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• Is it legal to ask my employee to access their medical file?
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Yes – Case law is clear: while the right to privacy protects an employee’s medical information, this right is not absolute and must be balanced with the employer’s right to obtain an employee’s medical information for the proper management of their organization.
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• When or under what conditions do employers have this right?
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Although case law recognizes the employer’s right to request a medical certificate from an absent employee in order to better manage their organization, this right is limited to circumstances where there are reasonable grounds or suspicions regarding the employee’s health, for example:
- Suspicious or fraudulent absenteeism
- Repeated absences
- Long-term absence
For absences longer than 10 days, employees must sign the authorization allowing the virtual medical director to retrieve and review the part of their medical file that relates ONLY to the absenteeism or accommodation in question.
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• Le directeur médical virtuel a-t-il également ce droit ?
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If the employer has the right to obtain information regarding an employee’s ability to perform their work, they CANNOT ‘play doctor’ to do so. It is generally recommended to consult a medical expert to review the medical file and assess the ability of an absent employee to perform their work – essentially, another type of "expert assessment".
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• What information can the employer request?
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Although employers do not have unlimited access to an employee’s medical information, they have the right to determine an employee’s ability to work as follows:
- The nature of the illness or injury
- The expected return-to-work date or the date of the next medical appointment
- The employee’s ability to perform their duties
- The name and contact information of the physician
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• What does the virtual medical director disclose to the employer? Confidential information?
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No confidential medical information is disclosed to the employer. Only the information necessary to determine the employee’s fitness for work is disclosed to the employer. Following the review of the medical file, we provide the employer with what case law allows:
- The nature of the illness or injury, as follows:
- Medical
- Non-medical: work-life balance, professional issue, family conflict
- The expected return-to-work date or the next medical appointment
- The employee’s ability to perform their duties
- The name and contact information of the physician
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• How does the virtual medical director manage the increasing number of mental health requests?
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The virtual medical director’s VERIFICATION & VALIDATION process makes it possible to quickly identify serious mental health issues. The director then assists the treating physician in referring the employee to nationally recognized mental health specialists within our network for thorough evaluation and treatment.
