Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank
Why the HIPDB Was Created
The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, acting through the Office of Inspector General (OIG), was directed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 to create the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB) to combat fraud and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery. Health care fraud burdens the nation with enormous financial costs and threatens the quality of health care and patient safety. Estimates of annual losses due to health care fraud range from 3 to 10 percent of all health care expenditures--between $30 billion and $100 billion based on estimated 1997 expenditures of over $1 trillion.
The HIPDB is primarily a flagging system that may serve to alert users that a comprehensive review of a practitioner's, provider's, or supplier's past actions may be prudent. The HIPDB is intended to augment, not replace, traditional forms of review and investigation, serving as an important supplement to a careful review of a practitioner's, provider's, or supplier's past actions.
Access to Information
Access to information in the HIPDB is available to entities that
meet the eligibility requirements defined in Section
1128E of the Social Security Act and the HIPDB
regulations 
. In order to access information, eligible entities
must first register with the Data Bank.
HIPDB information is not available to the general public. However, information in a form that does not identify any particular entity or practitioner is available.
Confidentiality
Information reported to the HIPDB is considered confidential and shall not be disclosed except as specified in the HIPDB regulations. The Privacy Act of 1974, protects the contents of Federal systems of records such as those contained in the NPDB from disclosure, unless the disclosure is for a routine use of the system of records as published annually in the Federal Register.
For more information on the HIPDB, see the: