In the office a boss discloses her husband is a heroin addict to a friend who's also a subodinate. The subordinate tells another office friend who then tells the boss she heard that her family has addiction issues and questions her compassion. The boss then very irrate demands this person tell her who disclosed her family information to her. The person refused to tell her. HR manager then tries to coerse this information from the employee saying she is at risk of a hippa violation and wants to know who disclosed the information to her. Again she refused to tell her and said she forgot who the conversation was with and leaves at that. The HR director then threatens to fire her.

Is this a hippa violation-if your boss tells someone family addiction then others find out about it.

No violation as the woman volunteered this information herself about the husband. If someone else then spread this "rumor" around, oh well. HIPAA only comes into play if this was a hospital or doctor's office personnel giving out this information