*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 
1991.04.01 :  Fees for National Practitioner Data Bank

Contact: Lynn Trible (301) 443-3376
April 1, 1991

     The Health Resources and Services Administration today
announced that it will collect fees at the time a request is made
to the National Practitioner Data Bank -- a repository for
details on malpractice settlements and adverse action reports on
health care practitioners.  Previously, eligible individuals and
entities were billed later.
       HRSA also announced in a general notice an increase in the
amount of the user fee.
     The Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986, as amended,
authorizes the data bank to charge a fee for information it
releases to authorized individuals and entities who query.  Fees
are supposed to cover the cost of processing inquiries.
     The data bank was set up to help hospitals and other health
care entities and state licensing boards check the backgrounds of 
physicians, dentists and other licensed health care
practitioners.  It collects information concerning malpractice
payments made on behalf of these licensed health care
practitioners, and also compiles information on adverse actions
taken against the licenses and clinical privileges of physicians
and dentists.  Information from the data bank is available to
licensing boards, hospitals and other health care entities.
    "Changing the way user fees are collected will improve the
management and administration of the data bank and will improve
the data bank's cash flow," said Assistant Secretary for Health
James O. Mason, M.D., who heads the U.S. Public Health Service. 
"The increase in the fees is regrettable but it is based on an
assessment of actual costs during the first four months of the
data bank's operation of processing queries and providing
information," he said.
     The rules provide that if the correct fee is not remitted
with the request, the request will not be processed.  The
modified billing system will be more efficient and easier to
manage and administer.  Although a fee collection and management
system will still be necessary, it would not require the
generation of bills, the pursuit of delinquent accounts or the
charging of interest on late payments.
     A notice of a new user fee, increasing the fee from $2 to $6
per name charged to individuals, entities or their authorized
agents is being published with the final rule on collection
changes in today's Federal Register.  Both the regulations and
the change in the user fee will become effective May 1, *This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 
1991.
     The Health Resources and Services Administration is an
agency of the U.S. Public Health Service in the Department of
Health and Human Services.
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