1st Jail time awarded for HIPAA violation accessing/reading medical records

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

from: u.s. attorney's office of the central district of california

may 05, 2010

ex-ucla healthcare employee sentenced to federal prison for illegally peeking at patient records

los angeles - a former ucla healthcare system employee who admitted to illegally reading private and confidential medical records, mostly from celebrities and other high-profile patients, was sentenced today to four months in federal prison.

huping zhou, 47, of los angeles, was sentenced this afternoon by united states magistrate judge andrew j. wistrich, who condemned zhou for his lack of respect for patient privacy.

zhou pleaded guilty in january to four misdemeanor counts of violating the federal privacy provisions of the health insurance portability and accountability act (hipaa). zhou specifically admitted to knowingly obtaining individually identifiable health information without a valid reason, medical or otherwise.

zhou is the first person in the nation to be convicted and incarcerated for misdemeanor hipaa offenses for merely accessing confidential records without a valid reason or authorization

...

http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/pres...r2010/079.html

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

no offense....but duh.

I think it was an appropriate sentence in this case.

[pielęgniarka, RN]

Wow 4 months in federal prison for reading records! He must have had some other things going against him. I do think that this is a very big deal though. When people go to the hospital, they are in a vulnerable state. The last thing they should have to worry about is some douche snooping through their chart.

[perry mecium]

With all the third parties and government bureaucrats involved in the relationship between patients and their physicians and nurses, does anyone really believe these government regulations will protect any patient's privacy? Does anyone believe this poor, dumb hospital employee's nosiness and time in a federal cage will protect patient's privacy. Uh, I'm skeptical.

[S.N. Visit, BSN, RN]

I wish I could send those $39.99 public record sites/publishers like "Spoke", "people search123" and to those accessing , reading & selling my personal info to federal prison .

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I wish I could send those $39.99 public record sites/publishers like "Spoke", "people search123" and to those accessing , reading & selling my personal info to federal prison .

Everything in those sites is public. What makes those sites annoying and upsetting (I agree with you, btw) is the ease with which it's accessed all in one place.

While I think what the employee did was wrong, and he should be punished for it, I wonder if the fact that he accessed CELEBRITY records came into play somehow.

[ok2bme]

Wow, I don't condone what he did, but that's really harsh. I think firing him and mandatory education would have been more appropriate. I think jail time would have only been warranted if he had shared the information for financial gain. I suspect prosecutors just wanted to make an example out of him. I am further disappointment in our "justice" system.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I wonder if the fact that he accessed CELEBRITY records came into play somehow.

It had to. Most likely someone in IT was looking over usage logs and saw a number of accesses of records of high profile patients, identified the person making the requests, and the rest is history.

[SharonH, RN]

I almost said this was excessive until I noticed that he accessed the records 323 times in a 3 week period after he was told he would be fired for the exact same violation. You would think his work as a cardiothoracic surgeon would have kept him busier than that. He needs a time out and a hefty fine.

[geocachingRN]

Everything in those sites is public. What makes those sites annoying and upsetting (I agree with you, btw) is the ease with which it's accessed all in one place.

While I think what the employee did was wrong, and he should be punished for it, I wonder if the fact that he accessed CELEBRITY records came into play somehow.

I also have to wonder, given his name, if there wasn't a racial issue involved as well as who he accessed. A fine would be better, but now tax payers have to feed and house him when there isn't room for more serious criminals.

[DoGoodThenGo]

While it may seem harsh, it really is about time an example was set, and it seems this particular person *really* just didn't get the message.

While not perfect, the laws are supposed to back up what one is supposed to learn in nursing, medicine programs and or at least have explained to when you start work in a clinical setting; it just simply isn't proper nor good to go nosing about persons personal medical information.

I remember when George Clooney was in hospital somewhere in NJ, everyone from nurses, to security guards, and in between was up in his business. Worse many who peeked were on the phone with places like TMZ offering to sell their information for a price. Then there was what poor Farrah Fawcett Majors had to endure.

IIRC, there was a woman in CA that was going down this path, but she died of cancer before they could get things into court.

Maybe if word gets out that the courts will send you to jail for violating HIPAA, they might think twice and get the point.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I also have to wonder, given his name, if there wasn't a racial issue involved as well as who he accessed.

As egregious as this was, I don't believe he can play the race card.