A visiting cardiothoracic surgeon from China, working as a researcher at UCLA School of Medicine, became the first person sentenced to prison for unauthorized access to medical records in violation of HIPAA. The few criminal convictions for HIPAA violations to date have involved monetary gain, such as a hospice worker’s use of patient records to commit identity theft or the sale of a celebrity’s medical records to a tabloid. This most recent conviction is remarkable because money was not a factor and the viewing of celebrity records was only part of the illegal conduct. According to court records, the criminal prosecution also was based on the researcher’s review of his immediate supervisor’s and former co-workers’ medical records. Continue reading on Littler's Workplace Privacy Counsel blog.