Practitioner Data Bank

The National Practitioner Data Bank, which has been open since September 1990, allows the Department of Health and Human Services to collect and release information on medical malpractice payments and professional actions against doctors, dentists, and other health care professionals. In response to congressional concerns that small payments are often considered meritless and implicate physicians who want to avoid the expense of going to court, this report (1) identifies and analyzes the range of malpractice payments reported to the data bank and (2) discusses the views of key health care service and professional organizations on including small malpractice payments in the data bank.

GAO found that: (1) about 44 percent of malpractice payments are under $30,000, which is 4 percent of the $2 billion in total reported payments; (2) in reported malpractice payments under $30,000, over 80 percent of dentists' and pharmacists' payments were below the threshold, as opposed to 36 percent of physicians' payments; (3) 71 percent of reported malpractice payments result from settlements between parties; (4) many health care services and professional organizations believe reporting of small payments is burdensome and unnecessary; and (5) a single threshold for reporting may not be effective for managing malpractice payment data.