HIPAA Violation: Article Analysis

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After looking over articles concerning HIPAA violations I went with the first article I looked over because it was so extreme to read! My first thought as I was reading was “ oh my, oh my this didn’t even happen on accident.” The article I chose to write on is called, “Californian Sentenced to Prison for HIPAA Violation”. April 29, 2010. The first sentence of this article is what drew me in. A former UCLA health system employee named Huping Zhou became the first person in our nation to go under imprisonment for violating HIPAA. Before being employed as a medical researcher at UCLA, Zhou was a licensed cardiothoracic surgeon in China. While employed as a medical researcher, Zhou took it upon himself to illegally view and read up on his coworkers and other high profile celebrities medical records. After receiving a notice that UCLA was going to dismiss him because of low job performance in illegal access. While on trial he admits to accessing UCLA records 323 times during a 3 week period. Lets just sate this as well, he wasn’t employed at the time either. He admits that he had no legitimate reason to after he was terminated from his job. …show more content…

Medical records are personal information that no one but you and your provider should need to discuss. Zhou could have changed these celebrity’s lives tremendously. This is the kind of information paparazzi strive to gain access to. If Zhou would have sold any of this information it could have ended these celebrities careers or dragged them into a downfall. Thankfully Zhou did lose his job in this case with how extreme the measures were. Not only did he lose his job he got 4 months in prison while also having to pay a fine of

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