April 28, 2020

This information was originally posted by Lisa Marie Gora, Esquire, of Wilentz Goldman & Spitzer PA, Woodbridge, New Jersey, as a part of the American Health Lawyers Association’s “COVID-19 Discussion and Resources Digest for Thursday, April 16, 2020.”

The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) announced that both one-time query and continuous query fees will be waived for all registered active organizations eligible to query the NPDB in response to the COVID-19 emergency. The waiver is retroactive from March 1, 2020, and will continue through May 31, 2020.  The NPDB will issue query credits to reimburse entities that conducted queries (one-time and continuous) between March 1st and the implementation of the fee waiver.

The NPDB website has a list of FAQs and access to Q&A teleconferences.

Example FAQ’s:

 1) Existing query policies are still in place, and no changes have been made to the NPDB's eligibility requirements for entities. Information reported to the NPDB is considered confidential and shall not be disclosed except with respect to professional review activity. Entities may not query on practitioners with whom they are not affiliated. However, entities that are registered with the NPDB and have entered (or may be entering) into an employment or affiliation relationship with a practitioner or to which a practitioner has applied for clinical privileges or appointment to the medical staff may query the NPDB.

 2) In response to President Trump's declaration of a national emergency and emergency declarations by all states, many health care entities have taken unprecedented steps regarding licensure portability and the deployment of appropriate health workforce resources. These health care entities rely on the NPDB to make informed hiring, licensing, and credentialing decisions, while maintaining appropriate standards for the nation's health care workforce. In this time of national emergency, the NPDB is waiving its entity query fees to support these entities.

 3) All registered active organizations eligible to query the NPDB will receive queries at no cost during the waived fee period. Remember, an organization may not query on practitioners with whom they are not affiliated.