Texas Attorney General Finds Public Hospital Compliance Reports are not Subject to Open Records Disclosure Request

The Texas Health & Safety Code specifically provides that records, information, or reports of or provided by a compliance officer of a public hospital, hospital district, or hospital authority are not subject to disclosure under the open records provisions of the Texas Government Code. The Texas Attorney General recently issued a favorable opinion to The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center regarding the requested disclosure of certain records of the compliance officer under the Texas open records provisions. The Texas A.G. confirmed the application of the Health & Safety Code and determined that the applicable compliance officer records must be withheld from disclosure. This opinion should give some comfort to the confidentiality of compliance officer records for entities that may be subject to Texas open records disclosure requests. See Tex. Att'y Gen. ORD-4373 (May 27, 2004).

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