Hospitals not reporting to NPDB, study claims
Hospitals are not reporting practitioners to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) as often as they should, claims a new study by Health Research Group, a branch of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen.
(How does your organization’s reporting practices compare to others? Take our poll at the end of this post to find out.)
The following is an excerpt from the study:
“As of December 2007, almost 50 percent of the hospitals in the U.S. had never reported a single privilege sanction to the NPDB. Prior to the opening of the NPDB in September 1990, the federal government estimated that 5,000 hospital clinical privilege reports would be submitted to the NPDB on an annual basis, while the health care industry estimated 10,000 reports per year. However, the average number of annual reports has been only 650 for the 17 years of the NPDB’s existence, which is 1/8th of the government estimate and about 1/16th of the industry estimate.”
We want to know, has your organization reported practitioners to the NPDB? Take our poll and see how your answer compares to your peers.
About the Author: Emily Berry is an associate editor at HCPro in the credentialing market. In addition to managing information on CRC she writes the Briefings on Credentialing newsletter and the Credentialing Resource Center Connection weekly email newsletter. A native of Ohio, she graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland before moving east to attain her MS degree in journalism from Boston University. She’s always looking for new ideas for articles, so if you have any to share, please email her at 
John Morley | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
When I worked in a hospital (now in state gov’t) our attorney’s interpreted the law to say reporting was to the “State Medical Board”. Does a hospital get credit for reporting to the State Medical Board (who in turn then report to the NPDB) or get no credit since it was not directly to the NPDB? Either way I do not suggest reporting is what it should be – simply that it may be better than suggested IF credit is not given for reporting to the State.
Robert Oshel | Jun 17, 2009 | Reply
Reporting to the NPDB has been done electronically and directly to the NPDB web site for years. In fact, that is the only way it can be done because paper forms are no longer provided by the NPDB. When filling out the report form electronically on the NPDB web site, hospitals are instructed to print and mail a copy to the relevant state board as they submit the form electronically to the NPDB, as mentioned in the law. Doing anything other than filing through the NPDB web site does not meet the legal requirement for reporting and does not result in a report being entered into the NPDB. Unless you receive a confirmation copy of the report directly from the NPDB, no report has been filed. A hospital cannot meet its legal obligation to report by sending a letter or even an old paper report form to a state board or anywhere else.
Robert E. Oshel, Ph.D. Retired Associate Director for Research and Disputes for the Division of Practitioner Data Banks, HRSA, US Department of HHS
Please note that I am not speaking for the Department since I am retired, but to the best of my knowledge the answer above reflects current Data Bank policy and procedures for reporting.