The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

chapter 8 | Medical Certifications (Proof of Illness) | 165
Where to Keep Medical Certifications
Employees have a right to privacy in their own medical information and that
of their family members. Although you can request limited medical information
so you can fulfill your obligations under the FMLA, you still have
to maintain the confidentiality of this material by storing it in separate files
(that is, not in employees’ regular personnel files) and restricting access to it.
For more information, see Chapter 12.
Clarifying a Certification
You may need clarification about something you read in a certification. But
you are not allowed to contact an employee’s health care provider directly to
ask questions about the certification.
The FMLA does provide an indirect route to very limited communications,
however: Your company’s health care provider may, with the employee’s
permission, contact the employee’s doctor to clarify and authenticate the
certification. Your company’s health care provider may not ask for additional
information that goes beyond the questions in the certification form,
however. If you choose to go this route, you should get the employee’s
consent in writing, signed and dated.
It isn’t entirely clear what it means to clarify or authenticate a certification,
and the regulation that governs this practice doesn’t give much guidance.
(29 C.F.R. § 825.307(a).) Presumably, this provision would allow an
employer’s health care provider to, for example, call and verify that the
employee’s health care provider really did complete and sign the form or ask
the employee’s health care provider to read his or her responses to particular
questions on the form (if they are illegible).
Incomplete Certifications
If the employee returns a medical certification that is incomplete, you must
tell the employee and provide a reasonable opportunity to fix the problem.
For example, if the health care provider didn’t fill in some of the blanks