October 24, 2001

Ms. Sara Shiplet Waitt
Senior Associate Commissioner
Texas Department of Insurance
P.O. Box 149104
Austin, Texas 78714-9104

OR2001-4843

Dear Ms. Waitt:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 153844.

The Texas Department of Insurance (the "department") received a request for copies of monitoring plans associated with a specified corporation that have been submitted to the department by another specified corporation. The requestor also seeks copies of information pertaining to these two corporations that relates to article 20A.18C(g)-(m) of the Insurance Code. You state that you will release most of the responsive information to the requestor. You claim, however, that one page of the submitted information is excepted from disclosure pursuant to section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and have reviewed the page at issue.

You claim that the submitted signature page from an executed contract is excepted from disclosure pursuant to section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with article 20A.17(b)(2) of the Insurance Code.⁽¹⁾ Article 20A.17(b)(2) provides:

A copy of any contract, agreement, or other arrangement between a health maintenance organization and a physician or provider shall be provided to the commissioner.... Such documentation provided to the commissioner under this subsection shall be deemed confidential and not subject to the open records law.

You state that one of the specified parties to the contract is the health maintenance organization and that the other specified party is the provider. After reviewing the submitted signature page, we agree that it, as part of the executed contract between the parties, is confidential under article 20A.17(b)(2) of the Insurance Code and, thus, must be withheld from the requestor.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular records at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For example, governmental bodies are prohibited from asking the attorney general to reconsider this ruling. Gov't Code § 552.301(f). If the governmental body wants to challenge this ruling, the governmental body must appeal by filing suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such an appeal, the governmental body must file suit within 10 calendar days. Id. § 552.353(b)(3), (c). If the governmental body does not appeal this ruling and the governmental body does not comply with it, then both the requestor and the attorney general have the right to file suit against the governmental body to enforce this ruling. Id. § 552.321(a).

If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, within 10 calendar days of this ruling, the governmental body will do one of the following three things: 1) release the public records; 2) notify the requestor of the exact day, time, and place that copies of the records will be provided or that the records can be inspected; or 3) notify the requestor of the governmental body's intent to challenge this letter ruling in court. If the governmental body fails to do one of these three things within 10 calendar days of this ruling, then the requestor should report that failure to the attorney general's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at 877/673-6839. The requestor may also file a complaint with the district or county attorney. Id. § 552.3215(e).

If this ruling requires or permits the governmental body to withhold all or some of the requested information, the requestor can appeal that decision by suing the governmental body. Id. § 552.321(a); Texas Department of Public Safety v. Gilbreath, 842 S.W.2d 408,411 (Tex. App.--Austin 1992, no writ).

Please remember that under the Act the release of information triggers certain procedures for costs and charges to the requestor. If records are released in compliance with this ruling, be sure that all charges for the information are at or below the legal amounts. Questions or complaints about over-charging must be directed to Hadassah Schloss at the General Services Commission at 512/475-2497.

If the governmental body, the requestor, or any other person has questions or comments about this ruling, they may contact our office. Although there is no statutory deadline for contacting us, the attorney general prefers to receive any comments within 10 calendar days of the date of this ruling.

Sincerely,

Ronald J. Bounds
Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Division

RJB/seg

Ref: ID# 153844

Enc. Submitted documents

cc: Ms. Rebecca K. Lambeth
Haynes & Boone, LLP
600 Congress Avenue, Suite 1600
Austin, Texas 78701-3236
(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision. Section 552.101 encompasses information protected by other statutes.
 

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