(a)  The department of health shall deem all application filings for certification, re-certification, and material modification, and correspondence directly related to those application filings, submitted under the provisions of chapters 17.12 and 17.13 of this title and chapter 41 of Title 27, to be “public records” as defined in § 38-2-2(4). Entities or agents certified under one or more of these statutes may request that certain portions of their application filings, or correspondence directly related to their application filings, be regarded as exempt from public disclosure, but may do so only by claiming one or more of the specific grounds delineated in § 38-2-2(4).

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(b)  For each document or for each portion of a document requested to be exempt from public disclosure, the certified entity or agent must specify the specific exemption claimed and the rationale for the exemption. Each specific exemption and the rationale for it shall themselves be public documents. The department shall determine which of the documents, or parts of the documents, for which an exemption is sought shall be public records and which shall be exempt from the disclosure required by chapter 2 of Title 38.

(c)  Each application filing for certification, re-certification, or material modification submitted under the provisions of chapters 17.12 and 17.13 of this title and chapter 41 of Title 27, and for which an exemption is sought, shall be made in three (3) parts:

(1)  Part One shall be a complete application filing with no materials to be deleted. This part shall be for the official use of the department as appropriate.

(2)  Part Two shall be a complete application filing, except that it shall not include those parts of the application filing which the filing party has claimed and the department determined to be exempt from the disclosure required by chapter 2 of Title 38.

(3)  Part Three of the application filing shall include those items and information requested to be excluded from the disclosure required by chapter 2 of Title 38 with a delineation of the specific exemption and criteria claimed under § 38-2-2(4) and the application filing’s rationale for each specific exemption claimed.

(d)  All application filings for certification, re-certification, or material modification submitted under the provisions of chapters 17.12 and 17.13 of this title and chapter 41 of Title 27 that are not made consistent with the three (3) part form described in subsection (c) shall, except as otherwise prohibited by state or federal law, be deemed “public records” under the provisions of chapter 2 of Title 38.