Congress asked to open database to the public
In recent testimony before the House Commerce Committee, a widower said his wife would not have chosen the same doctor to perform a face lift, liposuction, and other procedures if she had known he had been sued for malpractice four times previously. His wife died during cosmetic surgery in 1997. The man was one of several people urging Congress to open to the public the government database that tracks disciplinary actions and malpractice payments by physicians and other health care providers.
"I firmly believe if I had been provided access to the National Practitioner Data Bank, it would have saved the life of my beloved Judy,’’ he said. The California Medical Board ultimately ruled that the woman’s doctor had been "grossly negligent and incompetent’’ in the death of Judy Fernandez and revoked his license.
What’s in the data bank?
Two other people told the committee they had been victimized by doctors because they had no way of discovering adverse information in those doctors’ backgrounds. That information is available in the National Practitioner Data Bank, created by a 1986 federal law requiring insurance companies, hospitals, and state and federal regulators to report malpractice payments and disciplinary actions against all health care providers. That information is not available to the public. The law prohibits public disclosure of identities of the providers, limiting access to insurance companies, hospitals, and federal and state health regulators.
Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, introduced legislation in September to open the database to the public and expand its reach to include all felony and some misdemeanor convictions of physicians. Bliley says doctors routinely require consumers to give patient histories before treatment, so patients should have the right to obtain physician histories before consenting to life-threatening procedures.
Democrats have accused Bliley of sponsoring the bill and using the hearing to punish the American Medical Association, the main doctors’ lobby, for supporting patients’ rights legislation that would permit lawsuits against managed care companies and health maintenance organizations.
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