Withholding bonus due to oustanding medical bills?

[skitch885]

Heres the deal. Our hospital gets TRP , or a bonus each year if we meet performance standards as an organization.

I received an email in May stating that I had unpaid medical bills (due to my place of employment) and that they would be with holding my TRP bonus check indefinitely if the bills were not paid..

To be honest, I didn't pay much mind to the email. I thought I knew which bills it was referencing and figured I would just take care of it.

Fast forward to now. I find out the bills are still due (gone to collections, none the less) and I owe the hospital $1800. I pay it off, finally, but mentioned it to a coworker who stated that because my bills were overdue at the time of the email, I will not be eligible for the bonus check.

To me it seems my medical bills should be none of my employers business! How is that not a HIPPA violation? I'm less upset about losing the money than I am about HR being allowed to see which bills I owed to the hospital..

Am I wrong? Does anyone have any legal insight to this? I live and work in Delaware, if that affects anything!

[Sour Lemon]

Sounds frustrating, but I don't see how it's a violation for your employer to know about money you owe to them. You might have to look at your bonus check as additional "interest" paid towards the overdue bills.

[OscarTheOwl]

It does seem unfair, but employers have and do use debt against you, as well as other things in your personal life. I had to sign a form when hired on for a state job that if I was late/behind on student loans, I would be fired. Just like if I had any unpaid court fines, traffic citations, etc.