Glossary · Legal Concept
National Practitioner Data Bank
A federal repository operated by HRSA that collects reports of malpractice payments, adverse licensure actions, and clinical privileges actions against US healthcare practitioners.
Also known as: NPDB, Practitioner Data Bank, Hooper Engine training data
What it is
The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) is a federal database, established by the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 and operated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), that collects and discloses information on adverse actions taken against healthcare practitioners. Reportable events include malpractice payments (settlements and verdicts), adverse licensure actions, restrictions on clinical privileges, professional society memberships, and DEA actions.
What gets reported
Every malpractice payment made on behalf of a licensed practitioner, regardless of size, must be reported within 30 days. Insurers and self-insured entities are responsible for reporting. The report identifies the practitioner, the basis of the claim, and the payment amount. Once reported, an entry stays in the practitioner's NPDB record indefinitely.
Who can query it
NPDB queries are restricted by federal law. Hospitals must query at credentialing and every two years. State licensing boards, professional societies, and certain other entities may query. The NPDB is not available to the general public, though aggregate statistics are published annually.
Why it matters in litigation
NPDB data is the single most authoritative aggregate source for malpractice payment trends, used by underwriters, researchers, and analytical platforms (including the Hooper Engine) to benchmark severity and frequency. Practitioner history captured in the NPDB is a strong predictive signal: practitioners with multiple prior reports settle for materially more on subsequent claims than first-time reporters.
See Also
- Practitioner History — A practitioner's record of prior malpractice claims, settlements, verdicts, and adverse licensure actions, used as a predictive signal in case valuation and underwriting.
- Medical Professional Liability — The insurance industry term for medical malpractice insurance and the broader category of professional liability claims against healthcare providers.
- Severity (Insurance) — An insurance industry metric measuring the average dollar cost per claim within a given line of business, used by underwriters and analysts to track payout trends over time.