Open Records Decision No. 374
April 29, 1983

	Re:  Whether names of doctors who received medicaid and amount of payments 
to them are available under the Texas Open Records Act

Mr. Marlin W. Johnston
Commissioner
Texas Department of Human Resources
706 Banister Lane
Austin, Texas  78769

Dear Mr. Johnston:

	You have requested our decision under the Open Records Act, article 6252-17a, 
V.T.C.S., as to whether the names of physicians who receive medicaid payments, and the 
amounts paid, are subject to disclosure.  You specifically ask whether such information is 
excepted from disclosure by sections 3(a)(1) or 3(a)(2) of the Open Records Act.

	Section 3(a)(2) excepts information whose disclosure would violate the privacy of 
employees of a public body.  The physicians who are the subject of this request are not 
employees of a public body, and therefore section 3(a)(2) is clearly inapplicable.

	Section 3(a)(1) excepts “information deemed confidential by law.”  In this 
instance, you suggest that the constitutional and common law rights of privacy are most 
clearly at issue.  Constitutional privacy protects information within one of the “zones of 
privacy” delineated by the United States Supreme Court:  marriage, procreation, 
contraception, family relationships, and child rearing and education.  Open Records 
Decision Nos. 343, 328, 318 (1982); 269 (1981); 262, 260 (1980); 215, 201 (1978).  The 
requested information about medicaid payments to physicians is not within one of the 
protected categories.

	Common law privacy exists in any information which contains highly intimate or 
embarrassing facts about a person, the disclosure of which would be highly offensive to a 
person of ordinary sensibilities.  See Industrial Foundation of the South v. Texas 
Industrial Accident Board, 540 S.W.2d 668, 679 (Tex. 1976).  This office addressed a 
question similar to that presented here in Open Records Decision No. 268 (1981).  There 
it was held that the names and addresses of owners of publicly subsidized housing units, 
and the amounts paid to such owners by the housing authority on behalf of eligible 
tenants, were not excepted by a common law right of privacy.  In our opinion, this 
principle is applicable to the situation about which you inquire.

	You are concerned that two federal cases require a different result.  See The 
American Association of Councils of Medical Staffs of Private Hospitals, Inc. v. Health 
Care Financing Administration, No. 78-1373 (E.D. La. 1980) (unpublished); Florida 
Medical Association v. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 479 F.Supp. 1291 
(M.D. Fla. 1979).  These cases construe provisions of federal law not relevant to the 
information in question.  We conclude that the names of physicians who received 
medicaid payments, and the amounts paid to such physicians, are not excepted from 
disclosure under section 3(a)(1) of the Open Records Act, as information deemed 
confidential by law, specifically, a constitutional or common law right of privacy.

Very truly yours,

Jim Mattox
Attorney General of Texas

Tom Green
First Assistant Attorney General

David R. Richards
Executive Assistant Attorney General

Prepared by Rick Gilpin
Assistant Attorney General

Approved:
Opinion Committee

Susan L. Garrison, Chairman
Jon Bible
Rick Gilpin
Jim Moellinger
Nancy Sutton