Employer's Guide to GINA

On May 21, 2008, President George W. Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) into law. GINA was enacted out of concern that discrimination based upon a person's genetic information could result in the loss of health coverage or employment. GINA addresses this concern through two main components: Title I generally prohibits group health plans and insurance providers from discriminating based upon genetic information (expanding upon the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act of 1996 (HIPAA)). Title II of GINA is focused on federal, state and local employers, private employers with 15 or more employees, as well as employment agencies, labor unions and joint labor-management training programs (collectively employer(s)). On Jan. 10, 2011, the EEOC's final regulations implementing Title II became effective. 26 C.F.R. Part 1635 (2010). This article reviews the new regulations and summarizes Title II's limited exceptions.