Health officials in the Obama administration are making it difficult for the media to obtain information about doctors punished for malpractice and other misdeeds.

 

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has removed the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank, a database utilized by reporters investigating lapses in physician oversight, especially doctors in trouble.

 

Government officials pulled the Public Use File from public review because, they said, the information had been used inappropriately to identify certain medical practitioners.

 

The National Practitioner Data Bank is a confidential system that compiles malpractice payouts, hospital discipline and regulatory sanctions against doctors and other health professionals, according to the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ). A letter sent to members of Congress by the AHCJ and other journalist groups emphasized that “The Public Use File, while it didn't identify doctors by name or address, provided invaluable information about the functioning of state medical boards and hospital disciplinary systems.”

 

After the complaints by the journalists’ organizations, HRSA Administrator Mary Wakefield said her agency intends to bring the Public Use File back online, but in a different form.

 

Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is working on regulations (as part of implementing the federal healthcare reform law) that would restrict the release of Medicare billing data to “qualified entities.”

 

By qualified they mean those willing, among other things, to pay up to $200,000 for the data.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Agency Declines to Restore Public Data (by Pia Christensen, Covering Health)

Health-Care Reform Rules Would Restrict Public Reporting (by Marshall Allen, ProPublica)

AHCJ, Other Journalism Organizations Protest Removal of Data from Public Website (by Pia Christensen, Covering Health)

Medicare Program: Availability of Medicare Data for Performance Measurement (Regulations.gov)