HIPAA, office of civil rights, employee's medical work restriction note fall under HIPPA under NJ employment law

The HIPAA law does protect your health information. For example, even a death certificate that lists cause of death is considered protected information. Your employer would need to let you know if it is sufficient for their purposes to direct the note to someone other than your supervisor, but I suspect that if you raise HIPAA concerns they may be willing to allow you to do so. However, your supervisor needs to know enough information about your limitation to be able to provide work that meets those limitations. You might want to consider having the doctor rewrite the note so that you are comfortable with sharing it. Another idea would be for HR to convey enough information to your supervisor so that he can construct your schedule or responsibilites. Good luck and it sounds to me like you are on the right track.

Betsey Herd
Morgenstern & Herd,, PA
Tampa, Florida
morgensternandherd.com