NPDB Insights - March 2025

Is It Reportable?

A physician's application for surgical privileges was denied because the physician was not board certified in the clinical specialty and subspecialty for which he applied, as required by the hospital to which he applied for surgical privileges. Must this action be reported to the NPDB?

No. The action should not be reported to the NPDB if the physician failed to meet the hospital's established threshold criteria applied to all medical staff or clinical privileges applicants. Examples of threshold criteria may include: (1) minimum professional liability coverage, (2) board certification, (3) geographic proximity to the hospital, or (4) performance of a minimum number of procedures prescribed for a particular clinical privilege.

New and Updated 2024 Data and Resources

In 2024, the NPDB began new outreach and cybersecurity initiatives to enhance safety for our users.

• In 2024, we provided more than 14.9 million query responses and received more than 66,000 new reports. We updated our What is the NPDB? infographic to reflect the latest data.
• For the first time, NPDB queries result in disclosure of over 2.5 million reports, delivering critical information about health care practitioners, providers, and suppliers to those making important credentialing, hiring, privileging, and licensing decisions.
• The NPDB now sends all paper copies of Self-Query results via U.S. Certified First-Class Mail. Each copy requires a signature upon delivery to protect practitioner privacy.
• We introduced a new security measure for user accounts: identity verification. Identity verification works in tandem with multi-factor authentication, or MFA, to protect against unauthorized system access. We created a training video, help pages, and FAQs to help users set up their identity verification accounts.
• We held three webinars: Querying, NPDB Resources, and NPDB 101, to help users gain a deeper understanding of how the NPDB works, and how they can best work with us.
• The Public Use Data File and Data Analysis Tool now include data for all of 2024. We update the PUF and DAT quarterly. Sign up on the PUF and DAT pages to be notified when updates are posted to those portions of the website.

Visit our NPDB timeline to view milestones from the last year.

Registration Renewal and Attestation

Registration Renewal

Every 2 years, organizations' Data Bank administrators are required to renew their organizations' registration. They receive email reminders to renew before their registration expires. Regularly reviewing an organization's registration allows the organization to report to and query the NPDB as required.

During the registration renewal process, you must review and update the following information:

• Identification information
• Eligibility/Statutory authority
• Primary/Additional functions
• CMS certification number
• Query preference
• Certifying official and point of contact for reports
• User accounts that are no longer needed, which can be deleted.

If your certifying official has changed from your current registration, you will need to upload additional certification documents as required.

Visit our How to Renew Registration page for step-by-step instructions on how to renew.

Attestation

After completing your registration renewal, you will be prompted to attest.

Attestation is the NPDB's education and outreach effort to ensure that all registered organizations are meeting their reporting, querying, and confidentiality requirements.

During attestation, you may be asked to answer some questions about your organization. You will see a summary of your organization's reporting and querying history, as well as the legal requirements you must follow when reporting and querying. You must attest to whether your organization has reported and queried as required.

Visit the resources below for additional information and instructions on attestation:

• How to Attest
• What You Must Report to the NPDB
• Querying the NPDB