Can a public retirement system's board review a disability applicant's medical records in a closed meeting?

Plain-English summary

The Open Meetings Act starts from the rule that a governmental body has to open every meeting to the public unless a specific exception says otherwise. One of those exceptions, Government Code section 551.078, says the Act "does not require a medical board or medical committee to conduct an open meeting to deliberate the medical or psychiatric records of an individual applicant for a disability benefit from a public retirement system."

The Executive Director of the State Pension Review Board asked the Attorney General whether the board of trustees of a public retirement system fits that exception when it reviews an applicant's medical records to decide eligibility for disability retirement benefits, in a situation where the trustees, not a separate medical committee, are the sole finders of fact and law on those applications.

The office answered yes. It read section 551.078 to relieve the trustees of the open-meeting requirement when they deliberate the medical or psychiatric records of a disability-benefit applicant, and it said a board does not lose that exception just because limited resources or the system's administrative structure require the full board to perform the "medical committee" or "medical board" function. There was a limit: the board could close the meeting only while considering the records. Once it moved beyond consideration of medical records to taking final action on an application for disability benefits, it could not use the section 551.078 exception, so that step had to be open. Because answering the first question resolved the matter, the office did not reach the requestor's second question (whether a federal regulation, 29 C.F.R. section 1630.14(c)(1), would override Chapter 551).

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1995. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

The Open Meetings Act in Chapter 551 of the Government Code has been amended many times since 1995, and the federal regulation the requestor raised (29 C.F.R. part 1630) has its own history of amendment. Read this page for how the office analyzed the question as the statute stood in 1995, and check the current text of Government Code section 551.078 and the surrounding Open Meetings Act provisions before relying on any specific rule mentioned here.

What the opinion meant for those who asked

For the State Pension Review Board (the requestor): The office answered the first question yes. Because that answer disposed of the matter, it expressly did not address the second question about whether 29 C.F.R. section 1630.14(c)(1) overrides Chapter 551.

For boards of trustees of public retirement systems: Under the opinion, a board could close a meeting under section 551.078 while deliberating the medical or psychiatric records of a disability-benefit applicant, and it kept that exception even when the system's structure or resources required the full board (rather than a separate medical committee) to do that work. The opinion drew the line at final action: once the board moved past considering the records to deciding the application, section 551.078 no longer applied and the board could not meet in closed session under it.

For disability-benefit applicants: The opinion treated their medical and psychiatric records as records the board could review and deliberate in a closed meeting, consistent with the confidentiality purpose the office read into section 551.078.

Common questions

Can a public pension board close its meeting to look at someone's medical records?
Under this opinion, yes, while the board is deliberating the medical or psychiatric records of a person applying for disability retirement benefits. Section 551.078 was read to excuse that deliberation from the open-meeting requirement.

Does it matter that the whole board, not a separate medical committee, reviews the records?
No. The opinion said the board does not fall outside section 551.078 just because limited resources or the system's administrative structure require the trustees themselves to perform the medical-committee or medical-board function.

Can the board also vote on the disability claim in closed session?
No. The opinion limited the closed session to consideration of the medical records. When the board moves to final action on the application, it cannot use the section 551.078 exception, so that decision had to be made in an open meeting.

Did the Attorney General decide the federal regulation question?
No. Because the office concluded the board could consider the records in a closed meeting, it said it did not need to reach the second question, which asked whether 29 C.F.R. section 1630.14(c)(1) overrides provisions of Chapter 551 of the Government Code.

Background and statutory framework

The request rested on the Open Meetings Act, codified in Chapter 551 of the Government Code. Sections 551.002 and 551.101 require a governmental body to open every meeting to the public unless a meeting is expressly excepted. Section 551.078 is one such exception: it provides that the Act does not require a medical board or medical committee to conduct an open meeting to deliberate the medical or psychiatric records of an individual applicant for a disability benefit from a public retirement system. The first question was framed in terms of "a medical board or medical committee as described in section 2(o) of the Open Meetings Act."

The requestor asked the office to assume two facts: that no local ordinance governed whether the trustees' meetings are open, so the question turned entirely on state and federal law; and that the trustees had no committee or subcommittee for medical determinations but were required by the plan document to serve as the sole finders of fact and law on initial disability applications and reconsiderations. On those assumptions, the office concluded that section 551.078 relieved the board of the open-meeting requirement while it deliberated an applicant's medical or psychiatric records, that performing other functions did not strip the board of the exception while it was performing the functions section 551.078 describes, and that the exception did not extend to final action on an application. The second question (whether 29 C.F.R. section 1630.14(c)(1) would override Chapter 551 provisions otherwise requiring open review) was left unaddressed because the answer to the first question made it unnecessary.

Citations

Statutory and regulatory provisions discussed:

• Government Code § 551.078 (no open meeting required for a medical board or medical committee to deliberate a disability applicant's medical or psychiatric records)
• Government Code §§ 551.002, 551.101 (general requirement that meetings be open to the public)
• Open Meetings Act § 2(o) (medical board or medical committee, as referenced in the question)
• 29 C.F.R. § 1630.14(c)(1) (federal regulation raised in the second question, not addressed)

No court cases were cited.

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/dan-morales/dm-0340
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1995/dm0340.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain — the linked PDF is authoritative.

Office of the Attorney General
State of Texas

DAN MORALES
ATTORNEY GENERAL

March 29, 1995

Ms. Rita Horwitz
Executive Director
State Pension Review Board
P.O. Box 13498
Austin, Texas 78711-3498

Opinion No. DM-340

Re: Whether the board of trustees of a public retirement system serves as a medical board or medical committee for purposes of the Open Meetings Act, Government Code section 551.078 and related question (RQ-529)

Dear Ms. Horwitz:

You have asked two questions regarding the confidentiality of medical records that the board of trustees of a public retirement system reviews as part of the process by which the board determines whether an applicant is eligible to receive disability retirement benefits. For purposes of this opinion, you ask us to assume the following:

1. No local ordinance addresses the question of whether the meeting of the trustees of a public retirement system is open to the public. That issue is determined entirely by state and federal law.

2. The trustees have no committee nor subcommittee which deals with medical determinations. The trustees are required by the plan document to serve as the sole finders of fact and law on initial applications and reconsiderations of eligibility for disability retirement benefits.

Based on these two assumptions, you ask:

a) Is the board of trustees of a public retirement system serving as a medical board or medical committee as described in section 2(o) of the Open Meetings Act when reviewing or discussing medical records as part of its determination of the eligibility of a person to receive disability retirements benefits?

b) If your answer to the above is negative, does 29 C.F.R. 1630.14(c)(1) overrule any provisions of Title 5, Chapter 551, Government Code which would otherwise require the trustees to review and discuss medical records of employees and retirees in open session?

We will answer your questions in the order you asked them.

Sections 551.002 and 551.101 of the Government Code require a governmental body to open to the public every meeting it holds, unless the meeting is expressly excepted elsewhere. However, pursuant to section 551.078, the Open Meetings Act "does not require a medical board or medical committee to conduct an open meeting to deliberate the medical or psychiatric records of an individual applicant for a disability benefit from a public retirement system." You suggest that under section 551.078 the board of trustees of a public retirement system may conduct a closed meeting to review and deliberate on the medical and psychiatric records of an individual applicant for disability retirement benefits. We agree.

We believe that section 551.078 of the Government Code relieves the board of trustees of a public retirement system of the Open Meetings Act's requirement that the board's meetings be open "to deliberate the medical or psychiatric records of an individual applicant for a disability benefit from a public retirement system." That a public pension system board performs functions other than those described in section 551.078, does not, we think, remove it from the scope of section 551.078 while it is performing the functions described there. We do not believe that the legislature intended the policy expressed in section 551.078, of protecting public retirement systems' "medical committees" or "medical boards" considerations of disability applicants' medical records from the open meetings requirement, should vary in its application merely because limited resources or the administrative structure of such a system require that the public retirement system's board of trustees perform the "medical committee" or "medical board" functions. Of course, a board may not avail itself of the section 551.078 exception when it is performing functions other than those described in that section -- for example, when the board moves beyond "consideration" of medical records to taking final action on an application for disability benefits.

In light of our conclusion that the board of trustees of a public retirement system may, under section 551.078 of the Government Code, consider the individual medical and psychiatric records of an applicant for disability retirement benefits in a closed meeting, we need not address your second question.

SUMMARY

Under section 551.078 of the Government Code, the board of trustees of a public retirement system may consider the individual medical and psychiatric records of an applicant for disability retirement benefits in a closed meeting. In such circumstances, the board of trustees is serving as a medical board or medical committee for purposes of the Open Meetings Act. On the other hand, when the board of trustees is performing other functions, it may not conduct a closed meeting under section 551.078.

DAN MORALES
Attorney General of Texas

JORGE VEGA
First Assistant Attorney General

SARAH J. SHIRLEY
Chair, Opinion Committee

Prepared by William Walker
Assistant Attorney General