Soon thereafter Congressman Wyden introduced HCQIA in an effort to extend state peer review immunities on a federal level.
The Medical Malpractice Trial Bar, with its system of contingency fees, had been blamed for encouraging an increasing number of frivolous, non-meritorious lawsuits over the preceding 2 decades.
Furthermore, the studies of negligence did not attempt to separate the contribution of systems failures (not attributable to a single medical practitioner) from that of an individual physician.
[2] The American Medical Association lobbied for confidentiality and legal immunity for healthcare peer review processes.
The AMA objected to the creation of a National Practitioner Databank (NPDB) unregulated by medical boards, claiming that the number of frivolous suits that would be reported would be misleading.
In California, this move was echoed as insurance agencies and health plans were enabled to perform "peer review."