My husband is a director in environmental services department and he was made aware by HR that one of his employees filed a Hippa violation against another housekeeping employee for telling why this employee was off work on FMLA. The employee off on FMLA specifically told this other housekeeper that she was going to get a work excuse to be off since she was reassigned a new shift and was unhappy with the shift work. These two employees only work in housekeeping and have no other access to health information about the other, other than what one told the other. How can she file a violation against this other employee? Can she be in trouble for just telling other employees she is off because she has a back problem.

Anyone can file a HIPAA violation, doesn't mean one exists. If the one employee volunteered the info to the other employee, then no HIPAA violation exists.

HIPAA protects people from having their medical caregivers revealing confidential info without permission. From what you describe, no caregiver was involved and the info was volunteered. So, when HR investigates there should be no finding of a violation.