INADVERTENT VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION BY THE NATIONAL PRACTITIONER DATABANK (NPDB) REPORTING PROVISIONS OF THE HEALTH CARE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 1986: AN EXISTENTIAL ISSUE FOR THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF PHYSICIANS

In 1986 the US Congress passed the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986. (HCQIA) was designed to protect the health and safety ofthe public by 1) enhancing the Peer Review process through protection for peer review members from lawsuit-related damages, and 2) providing a national repository for reported information regarding medical malpractice payments and adverse credentialing actions involving physicians, which among other things, would monitor the movement of incompetent or unprofessional physicians from state to state. Those who framed HCQIA did not foresee that in 2023, hospitals and employers would invariably deny employment and/or hospital privileges, based on an NPDB report outlining loss of hospital privileges or relinquishment of hospital privileges while under investigation. Such an adverse report by NPDB, in many cases, results in the inability of physicians (particularly surgeons) to obtain employment or practice in any hospital. Therefore, in 2023, the unintended consequence of the reporting of adverse peer review actions by NPDB, an agency of the Federal Government, can violate the constitutional and civil rights of the said physicians. The NPDB reporting provision of HCQIA violates the 5^th, 8^th, 9^th and 10^th amendments of the Constitution.