My old company in Austin still has my health data from 2018 and won't delete it

I left my job six years ago, but their HR portal still shows my full medical history from a company wellness program. I've sent three certified letters asking them to delete it, and their legal team just says they 'need it for records.' It took me over 40 hours of calls and emails to even get that useless answer. Shouldn't I own my own body's information, especially after I quit?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamieb8011d ago

Actually, legal record keeping usually means payroll and tax stuff, not your personal medical history from a wellness program. That's your private health data. You might want to check with a lawyer who knows HIPAA rules, because after six years that seems excessive. They're probably just being lazy and don't want to deal with removing it from their old system.

drew_mitchell11d ago

Companies need to keep records for legal reasons, even if you're gone.

nguyen.blake11d ago

Yeah, the "legal reasons" line is what gets me... I read an article a while back that said companies often use that as a blanket excuse to avoid the work of cleaning up old data. For health info, the rules are way more strict and usually don't require holding onto it for that long after someone leaves. It feels less like careful record keeping and more like digital hoarding.