In recent months, we’ve heard one report after another that employees at UCLA Medical Center have improperly peeked at the files of celebrities such as Britney Spears, Farrah Fawcett and Maria Shriver.

Those reports apparently made their way up to Sacramento as well. California’s state Senate yesterday passed a bill that would create a state Office of Health Information Integrity, authorized to levy fines of as much as $250,000. The bill is online here; a list of who voted for and against is here.

The bill has the support of both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state’s hospital association, the Los Angeles Times reports. But some opponents argue that the high penalties will be passed on to patients, and that the bill will create an unnecessary new bureaucracy.

A state official told the LAT that some 30 snooping cases have been reported statewide in the past two years. UCLA has said it has put new systems in place to make it harder for unauthorized employees to read patients’ files.

The bill still has to be voted on in the state Assembly before going to the governor.

Farrah Fawcett photo from 1977 by Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty Images

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