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HHS fails to report malpractice claims from 1997 to 2004

Physician Practice Advisor, October 26, 2005

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) failed to report to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) 474 medical malpractice claims from 1997 to 2004, The New York Times reports.

Healthcare organizations often rely on the NPDB to check physicians' records. A 1986 law required private organizations to submit malpractice information to the NPDB, and federal agencies began reporting the same information in 1990.

Federal officials said they did not want to be bound by certain requirements that applied to insurers and hospitals in the private sector. In particular, they did not want to report payments if they believed that the care provided by a doctor measured up to an appropriate standard of care. Officials did not make a firm commitment to improving compliance, reports The New York Times.

Click here to view The New York Times article.

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