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Group Medical Practices & Ambulatory Surgical Centers
Group medical practices and ambulatory surgical centers, made up of multiple practitioners, that provide health care services and follow a formal peer review process to further quality health care, are allowed to query and required to report. The provision of health care services includes care provided by practitioners employed directly or through contractual or other arrangements.
Federal law requires group medical practices and ambulatory surgical centers that follow a formal peer review process to report certain clinical privileges actions that your organization has taken against physicians and dentists. If you have taken any reportable clinical privileges actions, you must submit the report within 30 days of taking the action. As part of our commitment to improving health care quality, every two years organizations will attest they have submitted all reportable actions.
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If you or your office is not already registered to query and report to the NPDB, you may begin the registration process by going to the Register Your Organization page and selecting Start a New Registration.
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Group medical practices and ambulatory surgical centers may query the NPDB when:
- They have or may be entering into employment or affiliation relationships with health care practitioners
- Health care practitioners apply for clinical privileges or medical staff appointments
- They are engaging in professional review activity
While a report in the NPDB does not necessarily indicate on its own whether or not a clinician is qualified, taken in conjunction with other elements of an applicant's experience and history, reports are a valuable screening tool to alert organizations of potential concerns or areas for additional inquiry. The authority to query, for both group medical practices and ambulatory surgical centers, is defined in Title IV of Public Law 99-660.
Query responses and enrollment disclosures may be used only in accordance with the confidentiality provisions of 45 CFR Part 60 for the purpose designated at the time of the query or enrollment.
What is a query?
A query is a search for information in the NPDB regarding a health care practitioner or organization. Eligible organizations submit information to us that we disclose to other eligible organizations. We only disclose this information to organizations that are registered and authorized to query. The ability of an organization to query, and the types of information they may receive through querying, is determined by law. When an organization submits a query, we release only the information they are lawfully allowed to access based on their registration.
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Group medical practices and ambulatory surgical centers that follow a formal peer review process are required to report certain clinical privileges actions taken against physicians and dentists. They can also report those same actions when taken against other health care providers, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Both types of organizations report under the authority of Title IV of Public Law 99-660 and 45 CFR 60.
More information about what and when to report is available at Reporting to the NPDB.
