§ 2995-a. Physician profiles. 1. The department shall collect the
following information and create individual profiles on licensees
subject to the authority of the office of professional medical conduct,
in a format that shall be available for dissemination to the public:

(a) a statement of any criminal convictions (as defined by section
1.20 of the criminal procedure law) within the most recent ten years,
under the laws of New York state or any other jurisdiction, for offenses
specified by regulations of the department;

(b) a statement of any action (other than an action that remains
confidential) taken against the licensee pursuant to section two hundred
thirty of this chapter or any similar action taken by any other state or
licensing entity, within the most recent ten years;

(c) a statement of any current limitation of the licensee to a
specified area, type, scope or condition of practice;

(d) a statement of any loss or involuntary restriction of hospital
privileges or a failure to renew professional privileges at hospitals
within the last ten years, for reasons related to the quality of patient
care delivered or to be delivered by the physician where procedural due
process has been afforded, exhausted, or waived, or the resignation from
or removal of medical staff membership or restriction of privileges at a
hospital taken in lieu of a pending disciplinary case related to the
quality of patient care delivered or to be delivered by the physician
(notwithstanding paragraph (a) of subdivision three of section
twenty-eight hundred three-e of this chapter, as added by chapter eight
hundred sixty-six of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty);

(e) (i) a statement indicating the number of medical malpractice court
judgments and arbitration awards within the most recent ten years in
which a payment is awarded to a complaining party (notwithstanding
subsection (f) of section three hundred fifteen of the insurance law);
and

(ii) a statement indicating all malpractice settlements within the
most recent ten years in which payment is awarded to a complaining party
(notwithstanding subsection (f) of section three hundred fifteen of the
insurance law),

(A) if the total number of settlements exceeds two; or

(B) if the commissioner determines any such settlement could be
relevant to patient decisionmaking concerning health care quality. The
statement shall include the following: "Settlement payments will appear
in this profile only if the total number of settlements made within the
past ten years exceeds two, or if the commissioner of health determines
a settlement to be relevant to patient decisionmaking. Settlement of a
claim may occur for a variety of reasons, which do not necessarily
reflect negatively on the professional competence or conduct of the
physician. A payment in settlement of a medical malpractice action or
claim does not necessarily mean that a medical malpractice has
occurred." The commissioner may supplement such statement as may be
appropriate.

(iii) judgments, awards and settlements shall be reported in graduated
categories indicating the level of significance, date and place of the
judgment, award or settlement. Information concerning medical
malpractice judgments, awards and settlements shall be put in context by
comparing an individual licensee's medical malpractice settlements to
the experience of other physicians in New York state within the same
board specialty. Pending malpractice claims shall not be disclosed to
the public under this section. Nothing herein shall be construed to
prevent the board from investigating or disciplining a licensee on the
basis of medical malpractice claims that are pending;

(f) name of medical schools attended and date of graduations;

(g) graduate medical education;

(h) current specialty board certification and date of certification;

(i) dates admitted to practice in New York state;

(j) names of hospitals where the licensee has practice privileges;

(k) appointments to medical school faculties and indication as to
whether a licensee has had a responsibility for graduate medical
education within the most recent ten years;

(l) information regarding publications in peer reviewed medical
literature within the most recent ten years;

(m) information regarding professional or community service activities
or awards;

(n) (i) the location of the licensee's primary practice setting
identified as such; and

(ii) the names of any licensed physicians with whom the licensee
shares a group practice, as defined in subdivision five of section two
hundred thirty-eight of this chapter;

(o) the identification of any translating services that may be
available at the licensee's primary practice location;

(p) whether the licensee participates in the medicaid or medicare
program or any other state or federally financed health insurance
program; and

(q) health care plans with which the licensee has contracts,
employment, or other affiliation.

1-a. Each physician licensed and registered to practice in this state
shall within thirty days of the transmittal of an initial profile survey
and upon entering or updating his or her profile information:

(a) register and maintain an account with the department's health
provider network and any successor electronic system established to
facilitate communications between the department and licensed health
care providers; or

(b) provide an e-mail address to the department which shall be used by
the department to communicate with the physician. Licensees shall
provide notice to the department of changed e-mail addresses within
thirty days of the change. Licensee e-mail addresses shall be
confidential and shall not be published as part of the licensee's
profile. The e-mail addresses may be used for department purposes only.

2. Nothing in this section shall limit the department's authority to
collect, require reporting of, publish or otherwise disseminate
information about licensees.

3. Each physician who is self-insured for professional medical
malpractice shall periodically report to the department on forms and in
the time and manner required by the commissioner the information
specified in paragraph (e) of subdivision one of this section, except
that the physician shall report the dollar amount (to the extent of the
physician's information and belief) for each judgment, award and
settlement and not a level of significance or context.

4. Each physician shall periodically report to the department on forms
and in the time and manner required by the commissioner any other
information as is required by the department for the development of
profiles under this section which is not otherwise reasonably
obtainable. In addition to such periodic reports and providing the same
information, each physician shall update his or her profile information
within the six months prior to the expiration date of such physician's
registration period, as a condition of registration renewal under
article one hundred thirty-one of the education law. Except for optional
information provided, physicians shall notify the department of any
change in the profile information within thirty days of such change.

5. The department shall provide each licensee with a copy of his or
her profile prior to dissemination to the public. In the manner and time
required by the commissioner, a licensee shall be provided the
opportunity to correct factual inaccuracies that appear in the profile.
The physician shall be permitted to file a concise statement concerning
information contained in the profile, which shall be disseminated
therewith.

6. A physician may elect to have his or her profile omit certain
information provided pursuant to paragraphs (l), (m), (n) and (q) of
subdivision one of this section. In collecting information for such
profiles and disseminating the same, the department shall inform
physicians that they may choose not to provide such information required
pursuant to paragraphs (l), (m), (n) and (q) of subdivision one of this
section.

7. A physician who knowingly provides materially inaccurate
information under this section shall be guilty of professional
misconduct pursuant to section sixty-five hundred thirty of the
education law.

8. The department shall establish a toll-free telephone number through
which it shall answer inquiries about and accept orders for hard copy
physician profiles established pursuant to this section and accept
consumer complaints about suspected professional misconduct. The
department may charge a nominal fee for producing and mailing a hard
copy physician profile.

9. The department shall, in addition to hard copy physician profiles,
provide for electronic access to and copying of physician profiles
developed pursuant to this section through the system commonly known as
the Internet. The department shall update a physician's online profile
within thirty days of receipt of a completed physician profile survey or
any change in profile information.

10. The commissioner shall require that:

(a) Practitioner organizations that are representative of the target
group for profiling, and health care consumer organizations, be provided
the opportunity to review and comment on the profiling methodology,
including collection methods, analysis, formatting, and methods and
means for release and dissemination.

(b) Comparisons of practitioner profiles shall be organized according
to practitioner areas of practice.

11. The commissioner shall evaluate the utility and practicability of
including in the profile a comparison of malpractice data by geographic
area. However, the implementation of the profile shall not be delayed
pending such evaluation.

12. The commissioner shall develop and distribute a notice suitable
for posting that informs consumers of the availability of physician
profiles and the telephone numbers and Internet addresses for accessing
them.

13. Further study of physician profiles. After the initial
dissemination of the data identified in subdivision one of this section,
the department shall conduct a further study of physician profiles as
follows:

(a) Data sources. The department shall identify the types of physician
data to which the public has access, including all information available
from federal, state or local agencies which is useful for making
determinations concerning health care quality determinations. The
department shall study all physician data reporting requirements and
develop recommendations to consolidate data collection and eliminate
duplicate and unnecessary reporting requirements, or to supplement
existing reporting requirements in order to satisfy the requirements of
this section. The department shall study the feasibility of
incorporating health plan reporting requirements, without imposing any
extra burden on the physician, regarding network participation into this
section to ensure this information is available, accurate, up-to-date
and accessible to consumers.

(b) Supplemental information adjustment and security safeguards. The
department shall develop a methodology for application to collected
physician data that accounts for factors such as frequency, severity and
geographic area which shall be used to provide context to reported data.
Any such methodology shall not diminish the information reported
pursuant to subdivision one of this section. In developing such
methodology, the department may consult with physicians, including
representatives of appropriate specialty societies. The department may
also consult with organizations representing consumers, other health
care providers, and health care plans. Any such methodology shall
include adequate and appropriate safeguards to ensure the security,
accuracy and integrity of health information created, received,
maintained, used or transmitted in connection with the statewide health
information system. Such safeguards shall be sufficient to meet any
minimum standards set by state and federal laws and regulations.

(c) Public review. The department shall provide organizations which
are representative of consumers, physicians, including representatives
of appropriate specialty societies, other health care providers and
health care plans the opportunity to review and comment on its
determinations and recommendations. The department shall consider such
comments, and may amend its determinations and recommendations to
reflect them.

(d) Report. The department shall provide a report of its
determinations and recommendations under this subdivision to the
governor and legislature, and make such report publicly available, on or
before January first, two thousand sixteen. The department shall report
annually thereafter to the legislature on the status of the physician
profiles and any recommendations for additions, consolidations or other
changes deemed appropriate.

14. The physician data so disseminated shall be updated at regular
intervals to be determined by the department.

15. (a) All physician data disseminated shall include the following
statements: "THE DATA COLLECTED BY THE DEPARTMENT IS ACCURATE TO THE
BEST OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DEPARTMENT, BASED ON THE INFORMATION
SUPPLIED BY THE PHYSICIAN WHO IS THE SUBJECT OF THE DATA. WHILE THE
DEPARTMENT UTILIZES A VARIETY OF SOURCES OF INFORMATION IN CHECKING THE
ACCURACY OF THE DATA REPORTED, WE CANNOT BE SURE THAT ALL OF THE
INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE IS RIGHT, COMPLETE, OR UP-TO-DATE, AND
CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INFORMATION THAT IS WRONG OR HAS BEEN LEFT
OUT. CONSUMERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CONSULT OTHER SOURCES TO VERIFY OR
OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT A PHYSICIAN. PENDING LEGAL ACTIONS
DO NOT IN ANY WAY INDICATE PARTIES' GUILT, LIABILITY OR CULPABILITY.
CASES MAY BE DISMISSED, WITHDRAWN, OR SETTLED WITHOUT PAYMENTS TO
PLAINTIFFS. ANY DISPOSITION TO A CASE MAY BE SUBJECT TO APPEAL." The
commissioner shall ensure that the full text of the statements appear on
each web page of the physician profile in a manner that does not require
the user of the site to click on a separate link in order to view the
statements.

(b) The department shall provide on the physician profiles an active
link to the website maintained by the unified court system containing
information on active and disposed cases in the local and state courts
in the state.

16. If, after initial dissemination of the physician data required by
this section, the department determines that any such data is not useful
for making quality determinations, the department shall recommend to the
legislature the necessary statutory changes.