Question about trucking company policies for being drug free

One question......
If the Doctors office causes such a high stress level what are you going to do when you get a big truck in a tight spot,heavy city traffic and blind side situations?
I agree that you should have never given any info that was not asked for but it sounds like anxiety will be a big factor for you.
In the trucking world anxiety can lead to really bad situations.....

Having trained drivers in the past i have seen that some guys just let stress get the best of them.
A newbie straight out of school+high stress levels=the possibility of disaster.

 

I'm more interested in how a physician, company or not, can share ANY of your private health information with ANYONE or ANY entity unless it is a disqualification as directed by DOT and past use is NOT a disqualification. Companies can and do implement policies above and beyond what is required by DOT, BUT, and this is the most important part, it does NOT under any circumstance trump federal law or absolve the physician from abiding by, in this case, privacy laws as may pertain HIPAA. May be time to lawyer up.

This is your career you're talking about. I'd take this to any level necessary to get it rectified. Unless there is more to the story, it certainly appears as if this physician breached the law.

 

I don't think the two reflect on each other honestly. I've met guys with years of experience that freak out when they go to a doctor. A lot of guys have a hard time with DOT physicals especially because they know their job depends on it.

 

Man I broke my neck in a Helicopter crash over seas when i was in the army and the let me go so for awhile i was pretty screwed up but when i went through a few jobs trying to find one that suited me best I finally found a job doing laying electrical lines and the money was fantastic we are talking $4k a week but after two weeks i was called in to the main office over a safety issue. The issue was i put that i broke my neck in the army and it came back to bite me. I did not have any money at the time or any insurance. So i lost that awesome job because i was stupid enough to put my information on my prior accidents information. So the point of the story is use some common sense and dont put stupid stuff on your paper work. nobody needs to know you smoked weed who cares.

 

just one more reason of why I only go to my family Dr. for all my medical needs, the only time I go to DOT or work Dr. is for a work related injury and I only tell them what they need to know, and nothing more. If I fell and broke my arm getting out of the truck on Monday, he doesn't need to know about the three beers I had on my 7 day vacation the month before.

 

Agree! I did notice my last DOT physical was all buy computer and the Doc said it was linked with DOT...
If it really was or not who knows but that is a HIPAA Voilation!

True.....Got to agree with ya Bob.
Just thinking that we have an ex-alcoholic and ex drug user here who is going to be on the road.
Not a good thing in my opinion.
I'm sure there are 1000's of them on the road today though....

 

The company does not have a method of reporting this incident to the DOT. As of now there is no data base of drivers and drug tests. When I had to submit the companies drug testing information [DOT surveys a number of companies every year] it was just summary totals no names, etc. The DOT only can say that the few thousand companies surveyed had x number of positives they can't say who they were.

 

That blood pressure issue is going to be the first thing that is going to be a problem issue. Go see a doc and talk about meds for it. I barely passed my physical and got a 1yr health card for my bp, and I'm already on meds. Keep a solid eye on this, or it will come back to bite you

 

How is an ex alcoholic or ex drug user not a good thing being out on the road? I don't understand your concern.

 

Yea, I'm hip to that but what I'm getting at here is the company should have no information regarding his admitted past pot use. Not only does the doctor have no authority to share that information, he is bound by law NOT to.

DAC maintains a database of failed and refused drug tests despite it not being part of DOT.

DOT gets around maintaining the database by putting the onus on the employer:
"All DOT covered employers are required to obtain consent from applicants allowing their previous DOT covered employers to release their drug and alcohol test results for the previous two year period [40.25]."