Hospital districts and county hospital corporations; officers and employees included.

(1) Boards of hospital districts and county hospital corporations may elect to bring employees of such districts or corporations under the provisions of the retirement law. Once this election is made it may not be revoked and all present and future employees shall be compulsory members of the State and County Officers and Employees’ Retirement System.

(2) All boards of hospital districts and county hospital corporations who now have officers and employees participating in the State and County Officers and Employees’ System will continue to have such coverage as provided by this chapter. The presumption being that such boards have elected to come under the law.

(3) The rights of any officer or employee who is a member of the State and County Officers and Employees’ Retirement System or who is receiving benefits under the provisions of this chapter, by virtue of Attorney General’s opinion and Comptroller’s rulings rendered prior to the declaratory decree of the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida, March 1957, shall not be impaired or reduced.