A former vice president at Med Center Health was placed on probation for two years Thursday and ordered to pay $140,000 in restitution after admitting to illegally disclosing the health information of thousands of patients.

Mark Kevin Robison was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green, where he pleaded guilty in September to a count of wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.

According to an information returned in the case by federal prosecutors, Robison disclosed health information protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, knowingly and under false pretenses, to another person without authorization from an entity covered under HIPAA, namely Commonwealth Health Corporation, now known as Med Center Health.

A plea agreement filed in court records said that as a vice president for CHC, Robison hired Randy Dobson as one of the entity’s patient account collection vendors.

In March 2011, Robison and Dodson registered OPTA, LLC in Kentucky, a corporation in which they were the only listed members, with Robison as the registered agent.

According to court records, Dobson was developing software that he and Robison hoped to eventually market and sell to health care companies.

OPTA Kentucky was dissolved, however, in 2014, and Delaware OPTA was incorporated later that year, with Dobson as the sole owner.

“Delaware OPTA continued pursuing the same software that Dobson had been working to develop,” Robison’s plea agreement said. “Robison hoped to share in Delaware OPTA’s profits if and when he left CHC.”

The illegal disclosure of health information was said to have occurred in 2014 and 2015 when Robison shared that protected information with Dobson in an effort to test OPTA software.

Robison directed CHC’s information technology department to disclose the health information to Dobson without any medical necessity and without CHC’s authorization, court records show.

“Robison was fired by CHC in December 2016 when his relationship with Dobson was discovered,” the plea agreement said.

The charge carries maximum penalties of five years in prison and a $100,000 fine, but the plea agreement reached between Robison and federal prosecutors called for him to be placed on probation and to pay restitution totaling $140,000 to CHC, identified in court records as the victim in this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Weiser said that CHC incurred expenses investigating the matter and notifying patients.

Weiser said that while the health information was disclosed to Dobson, there is no evidence showing that it was shared later by Dobson or further made available for public access.

Robison’s attorney, David Guarnieri, said at Thursday’s sentencing that Robison has paid half the restitution and intends to pay the remainder by the end of January.