HIPPA violation

In Sept. 2005 my husband partied one night, did some meth, had a bad reaction & ended up in the ER feeling like someone was trying to poison him. They tested him & told him he'd be fine; he was having a panic attack due to the meth. They gave him a sedative & he ended up home in bed in the early morning. He slept & did not call in sick to work. His supervisor called him at home to see why he wasn't at work. My husband told him he was up all night in the ER; sorry for not calling. He'd be there tomorrow. He went to work the next day & was called in to his supervisor's office. The supervisor knew WHY he'd been to the ER, and now he wanted to take my husband to the hospital for a drug test. Prior to this, my husband had worked for this company for aprx 5 years, got great performance reviews, never missed work without calling in (and didn't miss much work at all). The supervisor took a personal dislike to him from the moment he interviewed for the job. But they didn't have to be in the same room much, so my husband tried to ignore him when possible. This is a medical laboratory where he was working. SO, his supervisor got this private information from a "leak" from the ER. This seems a violation of the HIPPA act. My husband contacted them, they said they'd get back to him but never did. In the meantime, my husband & I have separated. The stress from the job loss did NOT help our already strained relationship. Then, since he lost his job, he had no health insurance when he desparately needed it to deal with the after-affects of the meth. He had medical issues as well as psychological. He did not get the professional help he needed, and STILL needs, I feel. What can be done? This has all snowballed and has destroyed our family....

You can file a complaint with the lab and possibly even seek legal damages. But you will have to show there really was an impermissible leak.