Myers

Plaintiffs appeal from that part of a judgment which denies their petition to compel disclosure of a Medi-Cal audit manual for health care providers. Defendants cross-appeal from that part of the judgment requiring them to disclose the professional qualifications of a Medi-Cal physician auditor.

Plaintiffs are three hospitals offering Medi-Cal program services as health care providers. They have been audited by the Department of Health Services of which defendant is the director. (Hereafter the department and its director will be referred to collectively as defendant.) Two of the plaintiff hospitals, Eskaton Monterey and Intercommunity, are in the process of administrative appeals from overpayment determinations made by defendant’s medical auditors. Relying on the California Public Records Act (Act) (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.), the three hospitals filed this mandate proceeding to compel disclosure of defendant’s audit manual. Since defendant has provided plaintiffs the medical standards portion of the audit manual, only the fiscal portions are at issue in these proceedings. The fiscal audit manual was submitted to the trial court for in camera examination; the parties…