National Practitioner Data Bank for Adverse Information on Physicians and Other Health Care Practitioners: Charge for Self-Queries

This final rule amends the existing regulations implementing the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of l986 (the Act), which established the National Practitioner Data Bank for Adverse Information on Physicians and Other Health Care Practitioners (the Data Bank). The final rule amends the existing fee structure so that the Data Bank can fully recover its costs, as required by law. This rule removes the prohibition against charging for self-queries and, therefore, allows the Data Bank to assess costs in an equitable manner. This is consistent with both the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act which allow the Government to charge fees for the reproduction of records. The Data Bank will continue its current practice of sending to the practitioner in whose name it was submitted--automatically, without a request, and free of charge-- a copy of every report received by the Data Bank for purposes of verification and dispute resolution.