During the first full week of July, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) announced that the University of California at Los Angeles Health Services agreed to pay a $865,000 fine and pledged to modify their infrastructure following claims that unauthorized employees, without a proper need to know, accessed two celebrity charts.

In addition to the $865,000 fine, UCLA Health Services will have to instigate a Corrective Action Plan approved by the Office for Civil Rights, conduct regular training for employees that access sensitive information, and hire an independent employee that will supervise compliance for three years.

Among celebrity charts accessed improperly were Governor Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Schriver, Farrah Fawcett, Brittney Spears, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Barbara Walters. A doctor, Huping Zhou, was recently sentenced to four months in federal prison for improperly accessing the DiCaprio and Walters charts.

For the DHHS news release announcing the settlement, go to http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/07/20110707a.html.