After Hospital’s Celebrity Snooping, a Push for Tougher Penalties

Posted by Jacob Goldstein in WSJ Health blog In recent months, we’ve heard one report after another that employees at UCLA Medical Center have improperly peeked at the files of celebrities such as Britney Spears, Farrah Fawcett and Maria Shriver. Those reports apparently made their way up to Sacramento as well. California’s state Senate yesterday passed a bill that would create a state Office of Health Information Integrity, authorized to levy fines of as much as $250,000. The bill is online here; a list of who voted for and against is here.