The Georgia General Assembly is considering changing some of the rules that govern the state’s hospitals. 

Specifically, lawmakers are looking at requirements for hospitals which operate under a Certificate of Need that directly relate to the public’s right to know.

The public has a real and genuine interest in medical centers, hospitals and health care facilities, and for good reason.

It should be easy for consumers to find out how hospitals make money, spend money and provide services.

A community should be able to easily check up on the health of its hospital.

Meetings of the hospital’s governing body should be open to the public.

Records regarding public hospital finances should always be publicly available.

Of course, personal patient information should always be protected.

But any efforts that would erode the public’s right to know about the operation and governance of a hospital should be regarded as an assault on the people of Georgia that compromises the ability of consumers to make informed decisions about their health care.

House Bill 198 and Senate Bill 74 include revisions that would do some good things by expanding public access to information, requiring hospitals to clearly disclose, on websites, financial statements, IRS Form 990, a community benefit report, ownership information for joint ventures, foundations and other agencies connected to the hospital, debt, fund balances, corporate structure, salaries and fringe benefits for the 10 highest paid administrators, and accreditation information.

This level of disclosure just makes sense.

However, there is also something rotten in the state of Denmark.

An amendment to the Georgia Open Records Acts that seems to have gone almost unnoticed would exempt certain disclosure requirements.

In a previous high profile pubic records case the state Supreme Court ruled that Northside Hospital, operated by a nonprofit third party, must comply with all the state’s open government laws, in the same way public hospitals operated by local hospital authorities must comply.

But some lawmakers want to amend the law to say certain records, including payment agreement with insurance companies and employment agreements with doctors at those hospitals operated by nonprofits, could be kept secret, hidden from the public. 

The amendments should be flatly rejected.

Lawmakers are elected to look out for the people of Georgia, the general public, and not to protect these management companies, insurance companies and highly paid physicians.

CNHI Deputy National Editor Jim Zachary is the editor of the Valdosta Daily Times and president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.