An epidemiologist with Connecticut’s Department of Public Health has filed lawsuits in both Connecticut Superior Court and federal court alleging violations of her free-speech rights after she claims supervisors retaliated against her when she pushed back on granting a colleague full access to the state’s HIV Surveillance Program, which contains information on more than 29,000 patients, according to the court complaint.
Heather Linardos, a state employee of twenty-five years who says she has spent her entire career at DPH working in HIV surveillance and data security, alleges she was demoted after she reported to various officials that she was ordered by two supervisors to unnecessarily grant “unrestricted access to all confidential patient HIV data” to Mukhtar Mohamed, an epidemiologist with the department’s HIV Health Care and Support Services Program.
Linardos claims in her court complaint that such access has never been previously granted and violates state statute and department regulations. It prompted her to report “this violation of law, regulation and policy, to DPH legal counsel and DPH Human Resources, to no avail.”
“Plaintiff then widely and publicly complained about this violation of HIV patient confidentiality to numerous local public health officials and the CDC,” attorney James S. Brewer wrote. “Following Plaintiff’s public complaints and reporting of Defendants’ violations of HIV confidentiality laws, regulations and procedures, Defendants began retaliating against her.”
“Defendants initiated false and malicious claims of misconduct, conducted bogus, insular and biased investigations, issued poor performance reviews, counseling letters, letter of reprimand, suspend her without pay and removed her from her position as HIV Surveillance Program Coordinator and Section Data Security and Confidentiality Manager,” the court complaint says.
Part of that retaliation, Linardos alleges, is that she was accused of threatening Mohamed, when she wrote in an email to a colleague that she had “wasted this entire week” dealing with threats from managers related to Mohamed’s access to the database.
“I’m meeting with CDC Data Security SME’s tomorrow at 10 am to give them an update,” Linardos wrote to the Co-Principal Investigator on the HIV Surveillance and Prevention federal grant. “Thank you Mukhtar, I won’t forget this.”
Linardos alleges that despite not sending this email to Mohamed, nor her managers, it was cited in a letter of reprimand that it “caused alarm to your colleague and managers,” and she was threatened with dismissal. Linardos was later placed on administrative leave and forced to undergo an examination through the employee assistance program to certify “that you are not a threat to yourself or others,” according to a letter to Linardos from a Labor Relations Specialist at DPH. Linardos claims her managers then claimed her administrative leave was FMLA leave, which she “did not initiate or condone.”
Linardos was then placed on an extensive Performance Improvement Plan, which, the complaint alleges, was then manipulated to continue citing Linardos for violations and work problems, and received poor performance ratings by the same manager she alleges was retaliating against her until she was finally removed from her job and “assigned to a menial position.”
According to DPH’s HIV Surveillance website, there are more than 11,000 individuals currently living with HIV in Connecticut, with Hispanic and Black populations making up roughly 70 percent of the cases, and 65 percent of the cases among individuals over 50 years old, “reflecting an aging population with HIV.”
DPH indicates the program is intended to collect information about individuals with HIV, conduct analysis and assess progress, and “disseminate HIV surveillance data to inform public health partners, the medical community, and the general public about the epidemiology of HIV in Connecticut to measure progress towards national goals and aid in public health planning.”
According to state statute cited in the court complaint, disclosure of such information is limited to those affected individuals, healthcare providers when appropriate, health officials when mandated or authorized by federal or state statute, medical examiners, and “any person who secures release of confidential HIV-related information. DPH regulation states that, “every effort shall be made to limit the disclosure of identifiable health data to the minimal amount necessary to accomplish the public health purpose.”
DPH maintains troves of health information contained in databases, including the Connecticut Tumor Registry, which tracks cancer patterns, population vital statistics, and surveillance programs for asthma, diabetes, and heart disease and stroke, among others. However, collecting identifiable data of those with HIV has been controversial dating back to the 1990s, and more recently as the CDC and states that receive federal funding are now conducting “molecular surveillance,” according to the New York Times.
The state, thus far, has filed a motion to dismiss based on some timing issues, and sought to remove the named individuals – including DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani – as defendants in the court action, arguing an action can only be brought against Linardos’ employer.
“The Defendants operated to deny the plaintiff her rights by the wrongfully imposed adverse employment actions, including defaming her as a threat to herself or others, letter of reprimand, baseless employee performance improvement plan, suspension, and then demotion and removal from her position as HIV surveillance and data security and confidentiality coordinator,” Brewer wrote.
Linardos is seeking compensatory damages, attorney fees, reinstatement to her previous position and an injunction against further retaliation.
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