As Omicron impacts 2022 return to work efforts, employers may be requiring their employees to download an app to monitor COVID symptoms, provide vaccination or booster status, and track recent exposure to infected friends or family. Some companies have created their own versions of these apps; others have contracted with virtual care companies whose health screening applications are available on the Apple App or Google Play stores.
Regardless of the path any employer has taken, employees should ask—and employers should be ready to answer—questions on how private healthcare data will be stored, used, and shared.
“If you tell an employee to send you their very personal medical information in a way that you haven’t secured and that gets lost, you have a huge issue,” said Sebastian Seiguer, CEO of emocha Health. “[You have] an obligation to the employee to protect their data.”
