How to Submit a One-Time Query

As part of a comprehensive review of practitioners' or organizations' credentials, organizations query the NPDB to discover any adverse actions including licensure and privileging actions, Medicare/Medicaid exclusions, and Medical Malpractice Payment Reports. Hospitals must query practitioners when they apply for medical staff privileges, then every two years thereafter, and when requesting expanded or adding privileges. Health care organizations other than a hospital may query at any time based on their NPDB statutory eligibility.

Note: Surveyors or auditors are not authorized to view the confidential results of an NPDB query (e.g., an NPDB report or the query response document). A query history page is generally sufficient evidence that a query was performed. The use of the query history page does not violate NPDB confidentiality regulations.

A fee of $2.50 is charged for each query submitted to the NPDB.

To Submit a Query

1. Sign into the NPDB.
2. On the Select an Option page, select Query.
   Exit

   Select an Option

   
3. On the Subject Type page, choose Individual Subject or Organization Subject to query.
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   Subject Type

   
4. Choose Select a Subject if the subject is currently in the subject database. If the practitioner is not in the database, select Use a Blank Query Form.
   Note: If you are querying as an authorized agent organization, you will select the organization before selecting a subject from your subject database.
5. If you select Use a Blank Query Form, complete the Query Input form.
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   Query Input

   
   
   Note: If you are querying as an authorized agent organization, you will first select the entities on whose behalf you will be querying.
6. To save the subject to your subject database, check the box at the bottom of the page.
7. Select your method of payment.
   Note: If you are acting as an authorized agent organization and using multiple forms of payment, you will have to query separately by payment method.
8. On the Certifier Information tab, choose a reason for querying, and complete the certification information.
9. In most cases, the final response will be available upon submission. Otherwise, a Temporary Record of Submission appears with a Data Bank Control Number (DCN). Keep this DCN for reference when checking the status of your query.

Note: A successful query has the status of Completed. If after 2 days the query status is still pending, contact the NPDB Customer Service Center for assistance.

Authorized Agents

Organizations can choose to have an authorized agent organization query or report to the NPDB on their behalf. In most cases, an authorized agent is an independent contractor used for centralized credentialing (e.g., a credentials verification organization). See Designate an Agent for additional information.