A former patient care technician at a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based hospital was sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to inappropriately accessing and sharing her ex-boyfriend's medical records, the U.S. Justice Department said June 21.
Prosecutors said Jennifer Bacor, 41, used her login credentials at the hospital to view her ex-boyfriend's private, protected health information on multiple occasions between April and October 2017. Ms. Bacor's ex-boyfriend was not one of her patients.
In September 2017, Ms. Bacor allegedly took a picture of a medical photo that showed one of her ex-boyfriend's injuries and sent it to another person, who then sent the picture to the ex-boyfriend and others on Facebook Messenger "along with taunting language and emojis," according to the news release.
In the June 14 sentencing, Judge C.J. Williams said Ms. Bacor had "'weaponized' her ex-boyfriend's private medical information," according to the news release. She was sentenced to five years of probation and fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to one count of wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information under false pretenses.
During her probation, Ms. Bacor is restricted from working in a job that would give her access to the private information of others.