Constitutional Law

Ala. high court rules health-care agency's records are public

By By The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Supreme Court ruled late last week that the public has a right to see the records of a health-care agency in its sale of assets of two hospitals in northwest Alabama.

The nearly unanimous ruling Oct. 29 went in favor of the TimesDaily newspaper, which had requested records from the Health Care Authority of Lauderdale County and the city of Florence after the authority sought bids in a plan to bolster financing of two hospitals.

The justices, reversing a circuit court in Florence, held that the health-care agency is a local government entity and its sale of assets is subject to the Open Records Act of Alabama. The sale involved assets of Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital in Florence and Shoals Hospital in Muscle Shoals.

?The sale of assets of a public hospital and possibly the ultimate disposition of that hospital, which provides care to the citizens in the community, should be a matter open for public discourse,? the court said.

The authority had told bidders that their submissions would be confidential. But the court disagreed with the agency?s claim that disclosure of the records might harm those bidding for the assets.

In a ruling that sets guidelines for such public-records cases in Alabama, the court said documents relating to day-to-day hospital operations likely would not be subject to public disclosure, and that documents relating to patients, physicians and hospital employees are protected from disclosure under state and federal laws.

But it said the Legislature did not specifically exempt health-care authorities from the state Open Records Act and that the financial actions at issue must be made public. It sent the case back to the trial court in Florence to review the documents in light of the ruling.

TimesDaily Publisher Darrell Sandlin said the ruling was ?a victory for our newspaper, the community and open records as a whole for the state of Alabama.?

?It?s a win for the public, and it?s a win for transparency,? said Dennis Bailey, general counsel for the Alabama Press Association, who represented the TimesDaily in the case.

Attorneys for the health-care agency did not return calls for comment in time for this story.

Eight justices concurred in the ruling, written by Justice Mike Bolin. Justice Glen Murdock concurred in part and dissented in part.

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on October 31, 2010 (boomark / email).