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d. Kind of action (e.g., position
classification appeal, job grading appeal,
retained grade or pay appeal, or FLSA
claim or complaint).
Individuals requesting access must
also follow OPM’s Privacy Act
regulations on verification of identity
and access to records (5 CFR part 297).
CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURE:

Review of requests from individuals
seeking amendment of their records that
have previously been or could have
been the subject of a judicial or quasiJudicial action will be limited in scope.
Review of amendment requests of these
records will be restricted to determining
if the record accurately documents the
action of the agency or administrative
body ruling on the case, and will not
include a review of the merits of the
action, determination, or finding.
Individuals wishing to request an
amendment to their records to correct
factual errors should contact the
appropriate official indicated in the
Notification Procedure section.
Individuals must furnish the following
information for their records to be
located and identified:
a. Full name.
b. Date of birth.
c. Agency in which employed when
the appeal or FLSA claim or complaint
was filed and the approximate date of
the closing of the case.
d. Kind of action (e.g., position
classification appeal, job grading appeal,
retained grade or pay appeal, or FLSA
claim or complaint).
Individuals requesting amendment of
their records must also follow OPM’s
Privacy Act regulations on verification
of identity and amendment of records (5
CFR part 297).
RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:

a. Individual to whom the record
pertains.
b. Agency and/or OPM records
relating to the action.
c. Statements from employees or
testimony of witnesses.
d. Transcript of hearings.
OPM/GOVT–10
SYSTEM NAME:

Employee Medical File System
Records:

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SYSTEM LOCATION:

a. For current employees, records are
located in agency medical, personnel,
dispensary, health, safety, or other
designated offices within the agency, or
contractors performing a medical
function for the agency.
b. For former employees, most records
will be located in an Employee Medical

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Folder (EMF) stored at the National
Personnel Records Center operated by
the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA). In some cases,
agencies may retain for a limited time
(e.g., up to 3 years) some records on
former employees.
Note 1: The records in this system of
records are ‘‘owned’’ by the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) and should be
provided to those OPM employees who have
an official need or use for those records.
Therefore, if an employing agency is asked by
an OPM employee to access the records
within this system, such a request should be
honored.
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE
SYSTEM:

Current and former Federal civilian
employees as defined in 5 U.S.C. 2105.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:

Records maintained in this system
include:
a. Medical records, forms, and reports
completed or obtained when an
individual applies for a Federal job and
is subsequently employed;
b. Medical records, forms, and reports
completed during employment as a
condition of employment, either by the
employing agency or by another agency,
State or local government entity, or a
private sector entity under contract to
the employing agency;
c. Records and pertaining and
resulting from the testing of the
employee for use of illegal drugs under
Executive Order 12564. Such records
may be retained by the agency (e.g., by
the agency Medical Review Official) or
by a contractor laboratory. This includes
records of negative results, confirmed or
unconfirmed positive test results, and
documents related to the reasons for
testing or other aspects of test results.
d. Reports of on-the-job injuries and
medical records, forms, and reports
generated as a result of the filing of a
claim for Workers’ Compensation,
whether the claim is accepted or not.
(The official compensation claim file is
not covered by this system; rather, it is
part of the Department of Labor’s Office
of Workers’ Compensation Program
(OWCP) system of records.)
e. All other medical records, forms,
and reports created on an employee
during his/her period of employment,
including any retained on a temporary
basis (e.g., those designated to be
retained only during the period of
service with a given agency) and those
designated for long-term retention (i.e.,
those retained for the entire duration of
Federal service and for some period of
time after).
Note 2: Records maintained by an agency
dispensary are included in this system only

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when they are the result of a condition of
employment or related to an on-the-job
occurrence.
Note 3: Records pertaining to employee
drug or alcohol abuse counseling or
treatment, and those pertaining to other
employee counseling programs conducted
under Health Service Program established
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. chapter 79, are not part
of this system of records.
Note 4: Only Routine Use ‘u’ identified for
this system of records is applicable to records
relating to drug testing under Executive
Order 12564. Further, such records shall be
disclosed only to a very limited number of
officials within the agency, generally only to
the agency Medical Review Official (MRO),
the administrator of the agency Employee
Assistance Program, and any supervisory or
management official within the employee’s
agency having authority to take the adverse
personnel action against the employee.
AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:

Executive Orders 12107, 12196, and
12564 and 5 U.S.C. chapters 11, 31, 33,
43, 61, 63, and 83.
PURPOSE(S):

Records in this system of records are
maintained for a variety of purposes,
which include the following:
a. To ensure that records required to
be retained on a long-term basis to meet
the mandates of law, Executive order, or
regulations (e.g., the Department of
Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) and OWCP
regulations), are so maintained.
b. To provide data necessary for
proper medical evaluations and
diagnoses, to ensure that proper
treatment is administered, and to
maintain continuity of medical care.
c. To provide an accurate medical
history of the total health care and
medical treatment received by the
individual as well as job and/or hazard
exposure documentation and health
monitoring in relation to health status
and claims of the individual.
d. To enable the planning for further
care of the patient.
e. To provide a record of
communications among members of the
health care team who contribute to the
patient’s care.
f. To provide a legal document
describing the health care administered
and any exposure incident.
g. To provide a method for evaluating
quality of health care rendered and jobhealth-protection including engineering
protection provided, protective
equipment worn, workplace monitoring,
and medical exam monitoring required
by OSHA or by good practice.
h. To ensure that all relevant,
necessary, accurate, and timely data are

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available to support any medicallyrelated employment decisions affecting
the subject of the records (e.g., in
connection with fitness-for-duty and
disability retirement decisions).
i. To document claims filed with and
the decisions reached by the OWCP and
the individual’s possible reemployment
rights under statutes governing that
program.
j. To document employee’s reporting
of on-the-job injuries or unhealthy or
unsafe working conditions, including
the reporting of such conditions to the
OSHA and actions taken by that agency
or by the employing agency.
k. To ensure proper and accurate
operation of the agency’s employee drug
testing program under Executive Order
12564.
ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE
SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES OF USERS AND
THE PURPOSE OF SUCH USES:

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Note 5: With the exception of Routine Use
‘u,’ none of the other Routine Uses identified
for this system of records are applicable to
records relating to drug testing under
Executive Order 12564. Further, such records
shall be disclosed only to a very limited
number of officials within the agency,
generally only to the agency Medical Review
Official (MRO), the administrator of the
agency Employee Assistance Program, and
the management official empowered to
recommend or take adverse action affecting
the individual.

These records and information in
these records may be used:
a. To disclose information to the
Department of Labor, Department of
Veterans Affairs, Social Security
Administration, Federal Retirement
Thrift Investment Board, or a national,
State, or local social security type
agency, when necessary to adjudicate a
claim (filed by or on behalf of the
individual) under a retirement,
insurance, or health benefit program.
b. To disclose information to a
Federal, State, or local agency to the
extent necessary to comply with laws
governing reporting of communicable
disease.
c. To disclose information to another
Federal agency, to a court, or a party in
litigation before a court or in an
administrative proceeding being
conducted by a Federal agency when
the Government is a party to the judicial
or administrative proceeding.
d. To disclose information to the
Department of Justice, or in a
proceeding before a court, adjudicative
body, other administrative body before
which the agency is authorized to
appear, when:
1. The agency, or any component
thereof; or

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2. Any employee of the agency in his
or her official capacity; or
3. Any employee of the agency in his
or her individual capacity where the
Department of Justice or the agency has
agreed to represent the employee; or
4. The United States, where the
agency determines that litigation is
likely to affect the agency or any of its
components, is a party to litigation or
has an interest in such litigation, and
the use of such records by the
Department of Justice or the agency is
deemed by the agency to be relevant and
necessary to the litigation, provided,
however, that in each case it has been
determined that the disclosure is
compatible with the purpose for which
the records were collected.
e. To disclose in response to a request
for discovery or for appearance of a
witness, information that is relevant to
the subject matter involved in a pending
judicial or administrative proceeding.
f. To disclose pertinent information to
the appropriate Federal, State, or local
agency responsible for investigating,
prosecuting, enforcing, or implementing
a statute, rule, regulation, or order when
the disclosing agency becomes aware of
an indication of a violation or potential
violation of civil or criminal law or
regulation.
g. To disclose information to the
Office of Management and Budget at any
stage in the legislative coordination and
clearance process in connection with
private relief legislation as set forth in
OMB Circular No. A–19.
h. To disclose information to a
congressional office from the record of
an individual in response to an inquiry
from the congressional office made at
the request of that individual.
i. To disclose information to the Merit
System Protection Board or the Office of
the Special Counsel, the Federal Labor
Relations Authority and its General
Counsel, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission, arbitrators,
and hearing examiners to the extent
necessary to carry out their authorized
duties.
j. To disclose information to survey
team members from the Joint
Commission on Accreditation of
Hospitals (JCAH) when requested in
connection with an accreditation
review, but only to the extent that the
information is relevant and necessary to
meet the JCAH standards.
k. To disclose information to the
National Archives and Records
Administration in records management
inspections and its role as Archivist.
l. To disclose information to health
insurance carriers contracting with the
Office to provide a health benefits plan
under the Federal Employees Health

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35361

Benefits Program information necessary
to verify eligibility for payment of a
claim for health benefits.
m. By the agency maintaining or
responsible for generating the records to
locate individuals for health research or
survey response and in the production
of summary descriptive statistics and
analytical studies (e.g., epidemiological
studies) in support of the function for
which the records are collected and
maintained. While published statistics
and studies do not contain individual
identifiers, in some instances the
selection of elements of data included in
the study might be structured in such a
way as to make the data individually
identifiable by inference.
n. To disclose information to the
Office of Federal Employees Group Life
Insurance or Federal Retirement Thrift
Investment Board that is relevant and
necessary to adjudicate claims.
o. To disclose information, when an
individual to whom a record pertains is
mentally incompetent or under other
legal disability, to any person who is
responsible for the care of the
individual, to the extent necessary.
p. To disclose to the agencyappointed representative of an
employee, all notices, determinations,
decisions, or other written
communications issued to the
employee, in connection with an
examination ordered by the agency
under medical evaluation (formerly
Fitness for Duty) examinations
procedures.
q. To disclose to a requesting agency,
organization, or individual the home
address and other information
concerning those individuals who it is
reasonably believed might have
contracted an illness or been exposed to
or suffered from a health hazard while
employed in the Federal workforce.
r. To disclose information to a Federal
agency, in response to its request or at
the initiation of the agency maintaining
the records, in connection with the
retention of an employee, the issuance
of a security clearance, the conducting
of a suitability or security investigation
of an individual, the classifying of jobs,
the letting of a contract, or the issuance
of a license, grant, or other benefit by
the requesting agency, or the lawful,
statutory, administrative, or
investigative purpose of the agency, to
the extent that the information is
relevant and necessary to the requesting
agency’s decision on the matter.
s. To disclose to any Federal, State, or
local government agency, in response to
its request or at the initiation of the
agency maintaining the records,
information relevant and necessary to
the lawful, statutory, administrative, or

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investigatory purpose of that agency as
it relates to the conduct of job related
epidemiological research or the
insurance of compliance with Federal,
State, or local government laws on
health and safety in the work
environment.
t. To disclose to officials of labor
organizations recognized under 5 U.S.C.
chapter 71, analyses using exposure or
medical records and employee exposure
records, in accordance with the records
access rules of the Department of
Labor’s OSHA, and subject to the
limitations at 29 CFR
1910.20(e)(2)(iii)(B).
u. To disclose the results of a drug test
of a Federal employee pursuant to an
order of a court of competent
jurisdiction where required by the
United States Government to defend
against any challenge against any
adverse personnel action.
v. To disclose information to
contractors, grantees, or volunteers
performing or working on a contract,
service, grant, cooperative agreement or
job for the Federal Government.
w. To disclose records on former
Panama Canal Commission employees
to the Republic of Panama for use in
employment matters.
x. To disclose to a requesting agency,
organization, or individual the home
address and other relevant information
on those individuals who it reasonably
believed might have contracted an
illness or might have been exposed to or
suffered from a health hazard while
employed in the Federal workforce.
POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING,
RETRIEVING, SAFEGUARDING, AND RETAINING AND
DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
STORAGE:

Records are stored in file folders, on
microfiche, in electronic record systems,
and on file cards, x-rays, or other
medical reports and forms.
RETRIEVABILITY:

Records are retrieved by the
employee’s name, date of birth, social
security number, or any combination of
those identifiers.

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SAFEGUARDS:

Records are stored in locked file
cabinets or locked rooms. Electronic
records are protected by restricted
access procedures and audit trails.
Access to records is strictly limited to
agency or contractor officials with a
bona fide need for the records.
The EMF is maintained for the period
of the employee’s service in the agency
and is then transferred to the National

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SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:

a. Deputy Associate Director, Center
for HR Systems Requirements and
Strategies, Room 6H31, U.S. Office of
Personnel Management, 1900 E Street,
NW., Washington, DC 20415.
b. For current Federal employees,
OPM has delegated to the employing
agency the Privacy Act responsibilities
concerning access, amendment, and
disclosure of the records within this
system notice.
NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:

Individuals wishing to inquire
whether this system of records contains
records on them should follow the
appropriate procedure listed below.
a. Current Employees. Current
employees should contact their
employing agency’s personnel,
dispensary, health, safety, medical, or
other designated office responsible for
maintaining the records, as identified in
the agency’s internal issuance covering
this system. Individuals must furnish
such identifying information as required
by the agency for their records to be
located and identified.
b. Former employees. Former
employees should contact their former
agency’s personnel, dispensary, health,
safety, medical, or other designated
office responsible for maintaining the
records, as identified in the agency’s
internal issuance covering this system.
Additionally, for access to their EMF,
they should submit a request to the
National Personnel Records Center
(Civilian), 111 Winnebago Street, St.
Louis, Missouri 63118.
RECORDS ACCESS PROCEDURE:

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:

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Personnel Records Center for storage, or
as appropriate, to the next employing
Federal agency. Other medical records
are either retained at the agency for
various lengths of time in accordance
with the National Archives and Records
Administration’s records schedules or
destroyed when they have served their
purpose or when the employee leaves
the agency. Within 90 days after the
individual separates from the Federal
service, the EMF is sent to the National
Personnel Records Center for storage.
Destruction of the EMF is in accordance
with General Records Schedule-1(21).
Records arising in connection with
employee drug testing under Executive
Order 12564 are generally retained for
up to 3 years. Records are destroyed by
shredding, burning, or by erasing the
disk.

a. Current employees should contact
the appropriate agency office as
indicated in the Notification Procedure
section and furnish such identifying

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information as required by the agency to
locate and identify the records sought.
b. Former employees should contact
the appropriate agency office as
indicated in the Notification Procedure
section and furnish such identifying
information as required by the agency to
locate and identify the records sought.
Former employees may also submit a
request to the National Personnel
Records Center (Civilian), 111
Winnebago Street, St. Louis, Missouri,
for access to their EMF. When
submitting a request to the National
Personnel Records Center, the
individual must furnish the following
information to locate and identify the
record sought:
1. Full name.
2. Date of birth.
3. Social security number.
4. Agency name, date, and location of
last Federal service.
5. Signature.
c. Individuals requesting access must
also comply with the OPM’s Privacy Act
regulations on verification of identity
and access to records (5 CFR part 297).
CONTESTING RECORDS PROCEDURE:

Because medical practitioners often
provide differing, but equally valid
medical judgments and opinions when
making medical evaluations of an
individual’s health status, review of
requests from individuals seeking
amendment of their medical records,
beyond correction and updating of the
records, will be limited to consideration
of including the differing opinion in the
record rather than attempting to
determine whether the original opinion
is accurate.
Individuals wishing to amend their
records should:
a. For a current employee, contact the
appropriate agency office identified in
the Notification Procedure section and
furnish such identifying information as
required by the agency to locate and
identify the records to be amended.
b. For a former employee, contact the
appropriate agency office identified in
the Notification Procedure section and
furnish such identifying information as
required by the agency to locate and
identify the record to be amended.
Former employees may also submit a
request to amend records in their EMF
to the system manager. When
submitting a request to the system
manager, the individual must furnish
the following information to locate and
identify the records to be amended:
1. Full name.
2. Date of birth.
3. Social security number.
4. Agency name, date, and location of
last Federal service.

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5. Signature.
c. Individuals seeking amendment of
their records must also follow the
Office’s Privacy Act regulations on
verification of identity and amendment
of records (5 CFR part 297).

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RECORDS SOURCE CATEGORIES:

Records in this system are obtained
from:
a. The individual to whom the records
pertain.
b. Agency employee health unit staff.

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c. Federal and private sector medical
practitioners and treatment facilities.
d. Supervisors/managers and other
agency officials.
e. Other agency records.
[FR Doc. 06–5459 Filed 6–16–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6325–39–P

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