Salinas v. Correct Care Solutions, LLC

559 S.W.3d 853
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJuly 13, 2018
DocketNO. 2017-CA-000743-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 559 S.W.3d 853 (Salinas v. Correct Care Solutions, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Salinas v. Correct Care Solutions, LLC, 559 S.W.3d 853 (Ky. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

JONES, JUDGE:

*854Acting without the assistance of counsel, the Appellant, Ruben Rios Salinas, a Kentucky inmate currently incarcerated at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky, challenges the Franklin Circuit Court's opinion and order, wherein the circuit court determined that Appellee, Correct Care Solutions, LLC, ("Correct Care") was not a public agency subject to the disclosure requirements of Kentucky's Open Records Act, KRS 1 61.870 et seq. Having reviewed the record in conjunction with applicable legal authority, we AFFIRM.

I. BACKGROUND

Correct Care is a health care company that provides health care services to inmates at jails and prisons across the United States, including the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Correct Care was the winning bidder and is the current contractor for health care services to be supplied to inmates in the custody of the Kentucky Department of Corrections.

Ruben Salinas is currently serving a life sentence. He is incarcerated at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Kentucky. On or about July 1, 2015, Salinas requested Correct Care to provide him with a copy of the current Hepatitis Management Plan for the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Presumably because Salinas sent the request to an incorrect mailing address, Correct Care never received it. As such, it did not send any response to Salinas.

When no response was forthcoming from Correct Care, Salinas requested the Office of the Attorney General ("OAG") to review the matter. See KRS 61.880 and KRS 197.025. The OAG notified Correct Care about the appeal. After receiving the OAG's notification, Correct Care filed a response with the OAG asserting that Correct Care was not a public agency subject to the Open Records Act. The OAG ultimately agreed with Correct Care's interpretation of the Open Records Act. Specifically, in an opinion issued on August 25, 2015, the OAG determined as follows:

No evidence has been presented to suggest that [Correct Care] would qualify as a public agency under KRS 61.870(1)(a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g), (j), or (k) ; likewise, 61.870(1)(i) is facially inapplicable given that its governing body is not appointed by a public agency. KRS 61.870(1)(h) is the only subsection that is potentially applicable.
Regional Vice President Traczewski confirmed that [Correct Care] is a healthcare company which provides healthcare services to inmates at jails and prisons across the United States, "including in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and it was the winning bidder and is the current contractor for health care services to be supplied to inmates in the custody of the [DOC]." Mr. Traczewski further attested that he possesses knowledge regarding the operations of [Correct Care] in Kentucky and elsewhere, "including the type of operations from which [Correct Care] derives its revenues *855and from which it makes its expenditures in Kentucky." Most significantly, the healthcare services that [Correct Care] provides to inmates at jails and prisons, including those in the DOC system, are provided under "competitively bid contracts." Mr. Traczewski swore "under the pain and penalties of perjury that the contents" of his affidavit were true, and specifically advised that, "[a]ll of the revenue that [Correct Care] receives and expends in the Commonwealth of Kentucky is received through the public procurement process." The record on appeal contains no evidence to refute his August 5, 2015, affidavit regarding this dispositive fact. Because all of the funds expended by [Correct Care] in the Commonwealth of Kentucky were derived from a state authority in compensation for goods or services provided under a contract obtained through a public competitive procurement process, and such funds are specifically excluded from the determination of whether it can be properly characterized as a "public agency" under KRS 61.870(1)(h), [Correct Care] does not satisfy the 25% threshold of that definitional provision. See 12-ORD-222. Accordingly, [Correct Care] is not subject to, nor can it be said to have violated the provisions of the Open Records Act.

Ky. Op. Att'y Gen. 15-ORD-161.

Salinas appealed the OAG's decision to Franklin Circuit Court. See KRS 61.880(5). Correct Care moved to dismiss the appeal arguing that it was not a public agency subject to the Open Records Act. Correct Care attached an affidavit from its Regional Vice President, Jeffrey J. Traczewski, to its motion to dismiss. In relevant part, Mr. Traczewski averred as follows:

3. [Correct Care] is a health care company that provides health care services to inmates at jails and prisons across the United States, including the Commonwealth of Kentucky, as it was the winning bidder and is the current contractor for health care services to be supplied to inmates in the custody of the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
4. I have knowledge both as to operations of [Correct Care] in Kentucky and elsewhere, including the type of operations from which [Correct Care] derives its revenues and from which it makes its expenditures in Kentucky. I also have personal knowledge as to the facts set forth in this affidavit.
5. [Correct Care] is a corporate entity that provides health care services to inmates at jails and prisons, including inmates in the Kentucky Department of Corrections prison system, pursuant to competitively bid contracts.
6. All the revenue that [Correct Care] receives and expends in the Commonwealth of Kentucky is received through the public procurement process.
7. [Correct Care] is a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of Kansas with its corporate principal place of business located at 1283 Murfreesboro Road, Suite 500, Nashville, TN 37217.
8. [Correct Care] is registered to do business in Kentucky as a foreign limited liability company and its principal office in Kentucky is located at 10629 Henning Way, Suite 3, Louisville, Kentucky 40241.

R. at 42.

In its opinion and order dismissing Salinas's appeal, the circuit court concluded as follows:

The relevant provision [of the Open Records Act] is KRS 61.870(1)(h), which characterizes an agency as a public agency if, within any fiscal year, it derives at least 25% of its expended funds in the Commonwealth from state or local *856authority funds.

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Bluebook (online)
559 S.W.3d 853, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/salinas-v-correct-care-solutions-llc-kyctapp-2018.