House Bill 3585c1
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
Florida House of Representatives - 1998 CS/HB 3585
By the Committee on Governmental Operations and
Representatives Peaden, Miller, Turnbull, Maygarden and Brooks
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to public records and meetings;
3 creating s. 395.3036, F.S.; providing that the
4 records of a private corporation that leases a
5 public hospital or other public health care
6 facility are confidential and exempt from
7 public records requirements, and the meetings
8 of the governing board of such corporation are
9 exempt from public meeting requirements, except
10 under specified circumstances; providing for
11 future review and repeal; providing
12 applicability; providing a finding of public
13 necessity; providing an effective date.
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15 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
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17 Section 1. Section 395.3036, Florida Statutes, is
18 created to read:
19 395.3036 Confidentiality of records and meetings;
20 corporations that lease public hospitals and other health care
21 facilities.--The records of a private corporation that leases
22 a public hospital or other public health care facility are
23 confidential and exempt from the provisions of s. 119.07(1)
24 and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution, and the
25 meetings of the governing board of such a private corporation
26 are exempt from the provisions of s. 286.011 and s. 24(b),
27 Art. I of the State Constitution unless:
28 (1) The governing board of the entity that owns the
29 public hospital or other public health care facility was the
30 incorporator of the private corporation; and
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 CS/HB 3585
192-970-98
1 (2) A majority of the members of the governing board
2 of the private corporation are also members of the governing
3 board of the entity that owns the public hospital or other
4 public health care facility.
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6 This section is subject to the Open Government Sunset Review
7 Act of 1995 in accordance with s. 119.15, and shall stand
8 repealed on October 2, 2003, unless reviewed and saved from
9 repeal through reenactment by the Legislature.
10 Section 2. This act applies retroactively to all
11 existing lease arrangements with respect to public hospitals
12 or other health care facilities and prospectively to all new
13 lease arrangements that meet the requirements of this act.
14 Section 3. The Legislature finds that it is a public
15 necessity that all records of a private corporation and all
16 meetings of the governing board of the private corporation be
17 confidential and exempt from public records and public meeting
18 requirements when the private corporation leases a public
19 hospital or other health care facility and the private
20 corporation is not owned or controlled by the public entity
21 that owns the hospital or other facility. This exemption is a
22 public necessity because public hospitals and other public
23 health care facilities must be able to lease their facilities
24 to private corporations in order to increase access to health
25 care in Florida. In the absence of the ability to lease the
26 facility to a private corporation, the public entity's only
27 choice is to sell the facility to a private corporation. Such
28 sales may result in a loss to the public. The ability to lease
29 the hospital or other health care facility is often the more
30 desirable option and often leads to more income for the public
31 entity that owns the hospital. Without this exemption, many
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 CS/HB 3585
192-970-98
1 more hospitals and health care facilities will be unable to
2 attract private corporations to assume responsibility for the
3 operations of the public hospitals or other health care
4 facilities. The privatization of hospitals and other health
5 care facilities, through lease arrangements, is critical to
6 the delivery of health care in Florida. This exemption is also
7 necessary because more then 20 public hospitals have been
8 leased to private corporations that were not formed by and are
9 not controlled by the public entity that owns the hospital.
10 Those leases were expressly authorized by s. 155.40, Florida
11 Statutes, or by special acts of the Legislature. Except in
12 those instances in which the lease expressly imposed the
13 public records and public meeting laws on the lessee, both the
14 lessors and the lessees believed that the private corporation
15 would not be subject to the public records laws and public
16 meeting laws of this state. It would be patently unfair to
17 have induced those private corporations to make substantial
18 investments in the publicly-owned hospitals and other health
19 care facilities and to now change the rules and impose the
20 public records and public meeting laws on those private
21 corporations.
22 Section 4. This act shall take effect upon becoming a
23 law.
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