Shaniqua Wallace

AH102-Allied Health 5:30pm

03/21/18

A former UCLA Health System employee became the first person in the nation to be
sentenced to federal prison for violating HIPAA. Huping Zhou, 47, of Los Angeles, was
sentenced to four months in prison on April 27 after pleading guilty in January to four
misdemeanor counts of accessing and reading the confidential medical records of his supervisors
and high-profile celebrities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of
California. Zhou was also fined $2,000.
In 2003, Zhou, who was a licensed cardiothoracic surgeon in China before immigrating
to the US, was employed as a researcher with the UCLA School of Medicine. On October 29,
2003, Zhou received notice that UCLA intended to dismiss him for job performance reasons
unrelated to the illegal access of medical records. That night, Zhou accessed and read his
immediate supervisor’s medical records as well as those of other coworkers. Over the next three
weeks, Zhou abused his access to the organization’s electronic health record system to view the
medical records of celebrities and high-profile patients, including Drew Barrymore, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Tom Hanks, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
According to court documents, Zhou accessed the UCLA record system 323 times during
the three-week period. In the plea agreement, Zhou admitted he obtained and read patient health
information on four specific occasions — with no legitimate reason, medical or otherwise —
after he was terminated from his job.

http://journal.ahima.org/2010/04/29/californian-sentenced-to-prison-for-hipaa-violation/
My response: I do not agree with the charges that was given to Mr. Zhou. After being
released from his position, he intentionally accessed medical files. Mr. Zhou not only did this
once but over 300 times in three weeks. According to the chart from Lesson 1 Law and Ethics in
the Health Care Setting, “Multiple Violations in one year a $1,500,000 fine. This article states
that he was only sentences to 4 months in jail and fined $2,000. These actions were intentional
and he should have received more time.
https://vc.instructure.com/courses/15934/pages/lesson-1-law-and-ethics-in-the-health-care-
setting?module_item_id=1281489