United States Ninth Circuit
US v. Zhou, 10-50231
In a prosecution of a former research assistant at the University of California at Los Angeles Health System for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) by accessing patient records without authorization after his employment was terminated, the district court's denial of a motion to dismiss the information is affirmed, as the HIPAA provision at 42 USC section 1320d-6(a)(2) is not limited to defendants who knew that their actions were illegal, but rather requires only that the defendant know that he or she obtained individually identifiable health information relating to an individual, so the information satisfied the requirements of both the Due Process Clause and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 7.
Appellate Information
- Decided 05/10/2012
- Published 05/10/2012
Judges
- M. Smith
Court
- United States Ninth Circuit
Counsel
- For Appellant:
- Amy Fan, Consuelo S. Woodhead