Many of us who have had discipline against our licenses as a result of substance abuse and/or criminal law issues have also had dealings with the Office of Inspector General. We are also not only at risk of Exclusion from participation in Medicare/Medicaid and other Federal programs as a result of this, the OIG also reports us to the National Practitioner Database. As most of you probably know, the NPDB gets reports from the OIG, law enforcement agencies, state boards of nursing, professional societies, insurance companies, etc about healthcare providers that run afoul of them.
The purpose of this post is to state that it behooves each of us to find out exactly what the OIG has about us on file, and what is reported about us to the NPDB. Both reports can be accessed online. But it's imperative that we each know what is out there information wise. Not only does this information affect our ability to work or not work, but it affects our ability to attain licensure in another state as well as obtaining clinical privileges. If there is anything incorrect or not updated in either of these places, it can really hurt you, and not just now. In the future.
I say this because I just got my NPDB report. I did this not only to know what exactly was on there, but to verify something incorrect about me on the OIG database. Not just a clerical error or a messed up or not updated address. A criminal conviction is listed for something I didn't do (I can prove it) and an incorrect occupation is also listed. I cross referenced this with other records on the NPDB as well, and it's not listed on them. They have the right information. The OIG doesn't. Oddly, the OIG does exclude for having a license suspension, but this wasn't listed either on their DB or the NPDB. They didn't exclude me for that. They excluded me for something I never did. I'm not sure if they got me confused with someone else, but either way it needs fixing.
Additionally, the agencies that report to the NPDB are required to update their submitted reports when there is new information on the subject. There were two agencies that hadn't done that, even though my arrest and criminal records were all expunged last year. Records have been supplied to the board of nursing for various things, and that information hasn't been updated. The law enforcement agency that investigated me also didn't update.
Finding all this upon a cursory examination, led me to do a more focused review. Clerical errors don't bother me. This was scary and well beyond that. I wrote my lawyer an email with the report and the concerns I have. She was already looking into the OIG thing, but now I have additional info and things to look into.
I'm just sharing this to encourage those of you who don't know what information is about you on these databases, it truly behooves you to find out. Now rather than later.
