In 1986 Congress created the National Practitioner Data Bank. It records malpractice payments, actions against a doctor’s license and restrictions on hospital privileges. A hospital must check it when a doctor applies, and again every two years.
The statute states the reason in its findings: “There is a national need to restrict the ability of incompetent physicians to move from State to State without disclosure or discovery of the physician’s previous damaging or incompetent performance.”