It's official: the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank will soon be no more. HRSA, in an effort to reduce regulatory burden, recently issued a final rule that will result in the transfer of all HIPDB data to the National Practitioner Data Bank. Once the transfer is complete, HIPDB will be shut down. "By combining two data banks into a single data bank, the need to capture like information in two data bases is eliminated," the final rule said.  

In addition to merging the two data banks, the final rule added some new reporting requirements for the NPDB, including requiring each state to establish a system for reporting licensure and certification actions taken against a practitioner by a state licensure or certification agency. Both data banks have essentially served the same purpose, collecting reports on any adverse actions taken against providers, such as licensure suspensions and Medicare and Medicaid exclusions. Hospitals and other health care organizations have been able to access information in the data banks.