A former Cedar Rapids hospital employee, who wrongfully accessed and distributed her ex-boyfriend’s medical records, was sentenced on June 14, 2021. Jennifer Lynne Bacor, age 41, from Las Vegas, Nevada, received probation after pleading guilty to one count of wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information under false pretenses.
In a plea agreement, Bacor admitted she was employed as a patient care technician at a Cedar Rapids hospital. Bacor was authorized to access individually identifiable health information but only as necessary to provide services to her patients. In 2017, Bacor’s ex-boyfriend was repeatedly treated at the same hospital. On multiple occasions between April and October 2017, Bacor used her login credentials to access her ex-boyfriend’s protected private health information even though he was not one of her patients. In September 2017, Bacor took a picture of a medical photograph that showed one of her ex-boyfriend’s injuries and sent the picture to a third person. The third person then sent the picture to the ex-boyfriend and others on Facebook messenger along with taunting language and emojis.
Bacor was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Bacor was sentenced to five years of probation and fined $1,000. During her probationary term, Bacor will be restricted from employment in which she would have access to private medical information of others. In sentencing Bacor, Judge Williams observed that Bacor had “weaponized” her ex-boyfriend’s private medical information.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tim Vavricek and investigated by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 20-CR-77.