EEOC issues new opioid guidance for patients and providers

Last week, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new guidance explaining nondiscrimination and reasonable accommodation provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that apply to people “not engaged in the current illegal use of drugs” who are qualified for employment. The documents, “Use of Codeine, Oxycodone, and Other Opioids: Information for Employees” and “How Health Care Providers Can Help Current and Former Patients Who Have Used Opioids Stay Employed,” underscore the rights of people who are using opioids, are addicted to opioids or were addicted to opioids in the past but are not currently using drugs illegally.     

An overview of the national EEOC ADA research project

The authors outline the development and scope of the National EEOC ADA Research Project which resulted from a cooperative agreement between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Virginia Commonwealth University. Research questions, the EEOC database, extraction of study data, limitations of the data, the organization of research teams, and the contents of this special issue of WORK are described.