National Practitioner Data Bank

This final rule revises existing regulations under sections 401-432 of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 and section 1921 of the Social Security Act, governing the National Practitioner Data Bank, to incorporate statutory requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Affordable Care Act). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also is removing regulations which implemented the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank. Section 6403 of the Affordable Care Act, the statutory authority for this regulatory action, was designed to eliminate duplicative data reporting and access requirements between the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB) (established under section 1128E of the Social Security Act) and the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). It requires the Secretary to establish a transition period to transfer all data in the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank to the National Practitioner Data Bank, and, once completed, to cease operations of the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank. Information previously collected and disclosed to eligible parties through the HIPDB will then be collected and disclosed to eligible parties through the NPDB. This regulatory action consolidates the collection and disclosure of information from both data banks into one part of the CFR.