Medical Exams Under the ADA, FMLA, and Rehabilitation Act
If your employer requires you to undergo a medical exam, do you have to submit to one? It depends.
An employer cannot require you to take a medical examination before offering you a job. Following a job offer, an employer can condition the offer of employment on your passing a required medical examination, but only if it requires all employees in that job to take the same examination. Furthermore, an employer cannot reject you because of information about your disability revealed by the medical examination, unless the reasons for rejection are jobrelated and necessary for the conduct of its business. Finally, the employer cannot refuse to hire you because of your disability if you can perform the essential functions of the job with an accommodation.
Once you have been hired and started work, your employer cannot require you to take a medical examination or ask questions about your disability unless they are related to your job and necessary for conducting business. Your employer may conduct voluntary medical examinations that are part of an employee health program, and it may provide medical information required by state workers’ compensation laws to the agencies that administer such laws.
