Records Of Health Worker Misdeeds Kept Secret
by Joseph Shapiro
September 3, 2009
Twenty-two years ago, the federal government started keeping a list of nurses, nurse aides, pharmacists and pharmacy aides who've been disciplined by state licensing boards. It's called the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank.
But hospitals and nursing homes aren't allowed to see the database.
By law, it was supposed to be open to hospitals and nursing homes when they hire staff and want to run a background check. But the Department of Health and Human Services never completed the regulation implementing the law. Turns out, slow-moving bureaucracy is the main culprit.
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Regulation Still In Limbo
In 2006, the Department of Health and Human Services started the process of writing a regulation. It got public comment, and reactions from seven or eight government agencies.
A year ago, during the Bush administration, the department finished the regulation. But then the White House froze it — and said it should be up to the new president to decide what to do next.
So it's all under review again. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services says things are on track. And that maybe by early next year, the department will open the registry of disciplined nurses, aides and pharmacists.
A government monopoly on health care will be so much better than what we have today.
