This unit applies GINA to live situations and adds one COBRA coverage point. The recurring move is to place the facts inside one of the six exceptions and then check whether the information is nonetheless being used in a decision.
Inadvertent acquisition
A supervisor learns in casual conversation that an employee's mother has Huntington's disease. That falls within exception (1), inadvertent request or requirement of family medical history, so the overhearing itself is lawful. What stays prohibited is discriminating because of that genetic information under 2000ff-1(a).
The effective action: confirm the acquisition was inadvertent, instruct the supervisor not to seek more and not to use it, and keep it out of any employment decision. Documenting it in the personnel file creates a record that invites use. Asking the employee for the family's full medical history converts an inadvertent acquisition into a deliberate request outside every exception. And GINA does not reach only test results — the manifestation of a disease in a family member is itself genetic information.
Forensic DNA
Exception (6) permits DNA analysis by an employer conducting law enforcement forensic analysis or identification of human remains, limited to using DNA markers only for quality control to detect sample contamination. No annual written consent requirement, and no aggregate-reporting condition — that one belongs to the wellness and monitoring exceptions.
Family history as a hiring screen
A policy refusing to hire applicants whose relatives have a history of heart disease is unlawful under 2000ff-1(a), because the manifestation of a disease in family members is genetic information. Applying it consistently to everyone is not a defense. Asking applicants to volunteer the history converts an unlawful basis into a deliberate acquisition outside the six exceptions. And a BFOQ reaches only religion, sex and national origin under Title VII — it has no application to GINA at all.
The COBRA coverage carve-out
COBRA reaches private-sector plans and plans sponsored by state and local governments. It does not apply to federal government plans or to church plans and certain church-related organizations. Excluding all public-sector plans is wrong, and there is no "fewer than 50 employees" test in COBRA.