Opinion
Opinion By: Albert B. Chandler III, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
This matter comes to the Attorney General on appeal from the actions of the Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) relative to Donald Rucker's open records request for copies of chain of custody forms and blood test results and other records pertaining to him.
In his letter of appeal, Mr. Rucker, an inmate at the Kentucky State Reformatory, stated that he had received neither a written response nor a copy of the records he requested. As a result, he appealed to this office to review the actions of LabCorp under the Open Records Act.
After receipt of the letter of appeal, we sent a "Notification to Agency of Receipt of Open Records Appeal," and a copy of Mr. Rucker's letter to the Department of Corrections. As authorized by KRS 61.880(1) and 40 KAR 1:030, Section 2, M. Lee Turpin, Legal Counsel with the Department, provided this office with a response to the issues raised in the appeal. In her response, Ms. Turpin advised that LabCorp is an independent corporation whose only relationship with the Department is that it is under contract to perform specific drug testing for the agency. A copy of the contract was provided to this office. The contract states that LabCorp will provide various types of laboratory test services that will be utilized by 11 prisons throughout the state. The contract sets forth the cost to the Department per each various type of test performed by LabCorp.
In this open records appeal, we address the threshold issue of whether the Open Records Act applies to LabCorp. For the reasons that follow, it is the conclusion of this office that LabCorp is not a "public agency" as defined by KRS 61.870(1) and it is not subject to the provisions of the Open Records Act.
This office has consistently recognized that a private corporation comes within the purview of the Open Records Act only if it derives at least 25% of its funds from state or local authority funds. 92-ORD-1114; OAG 88-61; OAG 81-377. Those opinions were premised on the following definition of "public agency" set out in KRS 61.870(1)(h) :
Any body which derives at least twenty-five percent (25%) of its funds expended by it in the Commonwealth of Kentucky from state or local authority funds.
LabCorp is a private, publicly traded corporation. Its internet web site states that, as one of the world's largest clinical laboratories, with annual revenues of $ 1.9 billion in 2000, the company has a network of 24 major laboratories and approximately 900 patient service centers (PSCs) from coast to coast and performs diagnostic procedures on specimens from approximately 260,000 patients each day. www.labcorp.com. LabCorp's web site states it serves over 200,000 clients nationwide, including physicians, managed care organizations, hospitals, pharmaceutical firms, and many Fortune 1000 companies, as well as other clinical laboratories and offers more than 4,000 clinical tests ranging from simple blood analyses to the world's most sophisticated diagnostic technologies operating at the molecular level.
The Department has advised that the dollar amount it has paid out under the contract with LabCorp for eleven months of the current contract year amounted to approximately $ 44,024. Under these facts, we conclude that LabCorp, a private, publicly traded company, with annual revenues of $ 1.9 billion in 2000, does not derive at least twenty-five (25%) of its funds expended by it in the state from state or local funds, and, thus, does not fall within the definition of a "public agency" to which the Open Records Act applies. Accordingly, we conclude that LabCorp is not a public agency, and is not subject to the requirements of KRS 61.880(1) and other provisions of the Act.
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882. Pursuant to KRS 61.880(3), the Attorney General should be notified of any action in circuit court, but should not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceeding.
Donald Rucker # 125104Kentucky State Reformatory3001 West Highway 146LaGrange, KY 40032
James Meyers, M.D.Director, LabCorp, Inc.4500 Conaem DriveLouisville, KY 40213-1961
M. Lee TurpinDepartment of CorrectionsOffice of General Counsel2439 Old Lawrenceburg RoadFrankfort, KY 40602