Washington (H24N). Congress soon will consider a bill that would make public a federal database that tracks the malpractice and disciplinary records of the nation's physicians and other health care providers.

Rep. Tom Bliley (R-Va.), who introduced the legislation on the floor of Congress Thursday, wants to make public the 10-year-old, publicly funded National Practitioner Data Bank, which is currently only available to hospitals, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and state medical boards. Making the database public would enable people to do their own research before choosing a physician or health care provider.

"Patients have the fundamental right to information about their doctors," Bliley said during a press conference announcing his bill.

Bliley's proposal, modeled after a Massachusetts physician database, would put on an Internet site physicians' malpractice judgments and any disciplinary actions taken by the health care workers' state medical board. In addition, the data bank would add the additional information about health care providers' criminal convictions, hospital disciplinary actions, Medicare and Medicaid exclusions.

Pete Sheffield, Bliley's spokesman, explains that the additional information is provided as a "flat-out report" on the doctor's history and that "no opinions" are listed on the site.

In introducing the legislation, Bliley pointed to the fact that many consumers already have ample information available to them on the Internet regarding purchases that are not life-threatening.

"Nowadays, most consumers are forced to choose a doctor from a list of providers or even Yellow Pages," Bliley said. "And yet the American public currently has more comparative information about the used car we purchase or the snack food we eat than the doctors in whose care we entrust our health and well being."

The congressman's proposals have met with resistance from the American Medical Association (AMA), which says it supports the idea of providing "accurate information" to the public, but has staged a public outcry since first hearing of the proposed legislation.

"Information about physician credentials and disciplinary action is available right now to patients through state-based systems already in place," Thomas Reardon, MD, AMA immediate-past president, said in a statement. "By the end of the year, these state-based systems will be linked through the Federation of State Medical Boards website, so patients can check on their physician even if the physician has moved from another state."

Sheffield points out that currently only 28 states have Internet-based physician databases that could be linked together to form the Federation of State Medical Boards Web site.

Reardon says Bliley is introducing the legislation in "retaliation" for the association's efforts to pass a Patients Bill of Rights.

"It is outrageous that Rep. Bliley calls this bill the Patient Protection Act, taking the name from the earliest efforts to stop managed care abuses," Reardon said.

"Let me send a clear message to Rep. Bliley: We will not be distracted from our efforts to pass a strong Patients' Bill of Rights and put an end to managed care abuses," Reardon wrote.

The House Committee on Commerce of which Bliley is chairman will take up the bill in mid-September. No date has been set for the full Congress to take up the matter.

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