General Public
The NPDB-HIPDB is prohibited by law from disclosing information
on a specific practitioner, provider, or supplier to a member of
the general public. However, persons or entities may request information
in a form that does not identify any particular entity or practitioner
(see Public Use Data File). For additional information,
see the Fact
Sheet for the General Public 
.
You may also wish to contact the State medical board to see if
any licensure actions have taken place for a physician. (See NPDB
Guidebook Chapter H, Information Sources , for a list of State
medical and dental boards.) Malpractice and criminal conviction
information is not always available from State medical boards, but
can usually be found by performing research at relevant courthouses.
Attorney Access
Attorneys are not permitted to query the HIPDB. However, a plaintiff’s attorney or a plaintiff representing himself or herself is permitted to obtain information from the NPDB under limited conditions:
- A medical malpractice action or claim must have been filed by
the plaintiff against a hospital in a State or Federal court or
other adjudicated body.
- The practitioner on whom the information is requested must be named in the action or claim.
Because the HIPDB does not contain information pertaining to medical malpractice payments, this Data Bank does not meet the conditions outlined above and may not be accessed by plaintiffs' attorneys.
Defense attorneys are not permitted access to the NPDB under Title
IV or to the HIPDB because the defendant practitioner is permitted
to self-query the Data Banks. Specific
procedures for attorney requests are identified in the Fact
Sheet for Attorneys .