UCLA Medical Center Workers To Be Fired For Looking At Britney Spears’ Records

At least 13 employees are expected to be fired from UCLA Medical Center over allegedly viewing Britney Spears’ confidential medical records, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Six other workers have been suspended, according to the paper, and six additional workers, who are doctors, will be punished for looking at Britney’s records, a source familiar with the situation told the paper.

However, according to the new report, this is not the first time that workers have been reprimanded for peering at Britney’s medical files.

A handful of employees were caught reviewing her files after she gave birth to Sean Preston at a UCLA medical facility in 2005. Those viewings resulted in the firing of several employees.

“I feel like we do everything that we possibly can to ensure the privacy of our patients and I know we feel horrible that it happened again,” the director of human resources at UCLA’s Santa Monica hospital, Jeri Simpson, told the LA Times. “It’s not only surprising, it’s very frustrating and it’s very disappointing.”

The Times reported that UCLA officials sent a memo the day Britney was hospitalized on January 31, reminding employees not to review medical records unless their job required them to do so.

Viewing a person’s medical records is a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA.

Because HIPAA is federal law, a person who violates it can be subject to fines, or in more serious cases even imprisonment, a source in the medical field told Access Hollywood.

The employees who are set to be axed from UCLA did not view Britney’s recent medical records, but rather ones from previous hospital visits, a source told the LA Times.

Those who viewed Britney’s information are believed to have left an electronic trail, which was traceable, the paper reported.