United HealthCare of Georgia, Inc. and United HealthCare Insurance Company collectively, “United HealthCare” sought to enjoin the disclosure of certain documents relating to United HealthCare’s contract with the Georgia Department of Community Health “DCH” for the administration of the State Health Benefit Plan “SHBP”. Some of the documents had been provided to the DCH by United HealthCare, while other documents had not and remained in United HealthCare’s sole possession. Granting summary judgment to the parties seeking the documents, the trial court ruled that all of the documents were public records under the Georgia Open Records Act, OCGA §50-18-70 et seq. and were not exempt from disclosure as trade secrets. We conclude that while all of the documents are public records as a matter of law, they nevertheless may be exempt from disclosure as trade secrets, if they satisfy the applicable two-part test. Therefore, we affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand the case for consideration of whether the documents constitute trade secrets.It is well established that on appeal of a grant of summary judgment, the appellate court must determine whether the trial court erred in concluding that no genuine issue of material fact remains and that the party was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. This requires a de novo review of the evidence. Summary judgment is appropriate when the court, viewing all the facts and evidence and reasonable inferences from those facts in a light most favorable to the non-movant, concludes that the evidence does not create a triable issue as to each essential element of the case.Citations and punctuation omitted. Rubin v. Cello Corp. 235 Ga. App. 250, 250-251 510 SE2d 541 1998. Mindful of these principles, we turn to the record here. Administration of the SHBP. The DCH is authorized by Georgia law to establish and administer a health insurance plan for state employees; accordingly, it has established the SHBP. OCGA § 45-18-2 a; Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 111-4-1-.01 55. As part of its administration of the SHBP, the DCH must ensure “a reasonable relationship between the hospital, surgical, and medical benefits to be included and the expected distribution of expenses of each such type to be incurred by the covered employees and dependents.” OCGA § 45-18-3 1. See also Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 111-4-1-.02 1 a. The DCH also is empowered to contract with a third party insurer “to provide administrative services in connection with” the plan. OCGA § 45-18-6 c.
In 2005, following a public bidding process, the DCH chose United HealthCare to serve as third party administrator of the SHBP, and a contract was executed by the parties reflecting the same the “TPA Contract”. Under the TPA Contract, United HealthCare is required to process and pay health insurance claims for SHBP members out of a bank account funded by DCH. See TPA Contract, Section 3.15.2. United HealthCare also must maintain a network of health care providers i.e, hospitals and physicians for SHBP members and execute formal contracts with those providers that address, among other factors, levels of reimbursement. TPA Contract, Sections 5.1 and 5.1.1.
