Jennifer Lynne Bacor, Medical Record Tampering, Iowa 2021

A former Cedar Rapids hospital employee has been sentenced to probation for wrongfully accessing and distributing her ex-boyfriend’s medical records.

Jennifer Lynne Bacor, 41, from Las Vegas, Nevada, received probation after pleading guilty to one count of wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information under false pretenses.

Bacor was employed as a patient care technician at a Cedar Rapids hospital and was authorized to access individually identifiable health information only as necessary to provide services to her patients.

However, in 2017, Bacor used her login credentials to access her ex-boyfriend’s protected private health information on multiple occasions between April and October, despite him not being 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, who then sent it 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 on June 14, 2021. She 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. 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.

The case file number is 20-CR-77, and court file information can be found at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Bacor’s case serves as a reminder of the importance of protecting sensitive medical information and the consequences of violating those protections.

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