No. SB 972
Filed under Healthcare.
Public Records and Meetings/Respiratory Care Interstate Compact; Providing an exemption from public records requirements for certain information held by the Department of Health or the Board of Respiratory Care pursuant to the Respiratory Care Interstate Compact; providing an exemption from public meetings requirements for certain meetings or portions of meetings of the Respiratory Care Interstate Compact Commission or the executive committee of the commission; providing an exemption from public records requirements for recordings, minutes, and records generated during exempt portions of such meetings; providing for future legislative review and repeal of the exemptions; providing statements of public necessity, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDA respiratory therapist's personal identifying information shared through the interstate compact's data system is exempt from Florida's public records law, unless the state that originally reported it authorizes release, and then only to the extent that state's own law allows.
Commission or executive-committee meetings, or portions of meetings, where sensitive or confidential matters are discussed can be closed to the public, and the recordings, minutes, and records from those closed portions are exempt from public-records requests too.
A meeting can be closed only if the presiding officer first states, in open session, that the commission needs to discuss the specified sensitive matters; the decision to close must itself be announced publicly.
Both exemptions automatically expire on October 2, 2031 unless the Legislature reviews and reenacts them, and this bill only takes effect if a separate bill establishing the compact itself also becomes law this session.
AIA respiratory therapist's personal identifying information, other than name, licensure status, or number, that Florida receives through the compact's data system is exempt from Florida's public records law and constitutional records-access right, unless the reporting state authorizes disclosure by its own law.
AIA meeting or portion of a meeting of the Respiratory Care Interstate Compact Commission or its executive committee is exempt from Florida's open-meetings law and constitutional meetings-access right whenever specified sensitive and confidential matters are discussed.
AIRecordings, minutes, and records generated during an exempt meeting or exempt portion of a meeting are themselves exempt from public-records law, so a closed session cannot be reconstructed afterward through a records request.
AIA meeting may be closed only if the presiding officer states, in a public meeting, that the commission or executive committee must discuss the specified sensitive and confidential matters; the decision to close must itself happen in the open.
AIThe new section is subject to the Open Government Sunset Review Act and stands automatically repealed on October 2, 2031, unless the Legislature reviews it and reenacts it to save it from repeal.