AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.What Happens When Your Employer Knows the Diseases You Might Get?As predictive medicine advances, legal scholars warn that decades-old federal guidelines could set up a potential clash between your genes and your job.Listen · 8:13 min A scanning electron micrograph of human chromosomes. Polygenic risk scoring, increasingly popular in personal medicine, uses an individual’s genome to estimate that person’s likelihood of developing a specific disease.Credit...Biophoto Associates/Science SourceMay 28, 2026, 5:03 a.m. ETImagine this scenario: At a routine visit, your doctor administers a new genetic test that shows you have a hugely elevated risk of a heart attack in the future. You’re in shape; you feel fine. But the prediction is in your DNA.The next day, you tell your employer that your doctor wants you to make some adjustments — switch to a less physically taxing role, or maybe lower your stress levels in an effort to save your life. Can your boss legally deny you these accommodations? Under current law, yes.That’s because the federal rules designed to protect against employment and insurance discrimination based on genetics were not written with this technology in mind. While the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, or GINA, protects workers from being fired over their genetic test results, and the Americans With Disabilities Act protects those with active disabilities, neither law compels an employer to provide accommodations to help mitigate a person’s future health risk.This could become a problem, as a new type of personalized medicine called polygenic risk scoring becomes increasingly popular. The technology uses DNA to estimate a person’s likelihood of developing a specific disease. Legal and public health scholars worry that as genomic tools advance quickly, our legal frameworks are falling behind — in some cases leaving those who use genetic tests vulnerable to outright firings.“These polygenic risk scores are going to become an increasing part of your life,” said I. Glenn Cohen, a Harvard Law School professor who specializes in the intersection of bioethics and the law and has co-written a report on the issue. “To me, it’s a great opportunity to reopen questions about what the rules should be — questions that, from a policy perspective, are legitimately hard.”To understand the legal lag, it helps to first consider how the science of risk prediction has evolved. Many people thinking of genetic testing envision monogenic tests, which search for specific gene mutations that cause specific disorders, like Huntington’s disease or cystic fibrosis. But polygenic risk scores scan for an array of variants throughout a person’s genome, synthesizing the information into a cumulative estimate of their risk of developing a disease like diabetes or cancer. If a monogenic test is like finding one severed wire that cuts off sound to a speaker, a polygenic risk score is like a soundboard, with dozens of switches that can combine to produce a dangerous frequency.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT