61.1—The Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank.
(a)
Section 1128E of the Social Security Act (the Act) authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) to implement a national health care fraud and abuse data collection program for the reporting and disclosing of certain final adverse actions taken against health care providers, suppliers, or practitioners. Section 1128E of the Act also directs the Secretary to maintain a database of final adverse actions taken against health care providers, suppliers or practitioners. This data bank will be known as the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB). Settlements in which no findings or admissions of liability have been made will be excluded from being reported. However, if another action is taken against the provider, supplier or practitioner of a health care item or service as a result of or in conjunction with the settlement, that action is reportable to the HIPDB.
(b)
Section 1128E of the Act also requires the Secretary to implement the HIPDB in such a manner as to avoid duplication with the reporting requirements established for the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) (See 45 CFR part 60 ). In accordance with the statute, the reporter responsible for reporting the final adverse actions to both the HIPDB and the NPDB will be required to submit only one report, provided that reporting is made through the Department's consolidated reporting mechanism that will sort the appropriate actions into the HIPDB, NPDB, or both.