The newsletter also describes:

• what health plan actions are and how to report them to the HIPDB;
• what is being done to improve password security; and
• how it will be easier for self-queriers to submit and store their self-queries in the future.

Published quarterly by HRSA’s Bureau of Health Professions, Data Bank News focuses on ways to improve health care and patient safety by accessing and revising information on practitioners, providers and suppliers contained in the two data banks. The National Practitioner Data Bank gathers reports on adverse clinical privilege actions taken against and medical malpractice payments made by or on behalf of physicians, dentists and other health care practitioners. In addition, it collects information on adverse licensure and professional society membership actions taken against physicians and dentists. The Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank contains information on adverse licensure actions, exclusions from federal and state health care programs, and health care related criminal convictions and civil judgements taken against practitioners, providers and suppliers. Both data banks help make state licensing boards, hospital credentialing authorities and other health care entities aware of potential problems in a practitioner’s, provider’s or supplier’s background. The data banks are not open to the public.

To view Data Bank News, click on http://www.npdb-hipdb.org/pointer/news.html, or contact BHPr's Division of Quality Assurance at (301) 443-2300 for a printed version. For more information on the data banks, visit http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/dqa/ on the World Wide Web.

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