Doctors' full records hidden from public

I'm working on a news story this week about Public Citizen's new Questionable Doctors web site. It contains federal and state disciplinary actions for 18,000 doctors in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

Comprehensive, yes, but the site does not include what can be even more telling about a doctor's record: malpractice payouts and revocations of hospital privileges.

You and I can't get that information easily, but hospitals hiring doctors can. They turn to the National Practitioner Databank. It's a government site, but it's prohibited by law from giving the facts on individual doctors to the public.