NPI Registry Goes Live August 1st - Providers urged to review their record prior to July 16th to prevent possible release of private information

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR PHYSICIANS AND OTHER HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS REGISTERED FOR NATIONAL PROVIDER IDENTIFIER (NPI) NUMBERS

Healthcare Providers are urged to login to the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) to review their NPI data prior to July 16th to make certain the information that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has listed is correct, and to delete any optional information they do not want released.

The data may contain your social security number and other private information.

Of particular concern is the data physicians may have entered in the optional data fields. For example, the data contained in the "Other Names" and "Other Provider Identifiers" data fields are optional, as is the physician's social security number. 

The NPI is a unique identification number that must be used by covered health care providers, plus all health plans and health care clearinghouses in the administrative and financial transactions adopted under HIPAA. In addition, covered providers must also share their NPI with other providers, health plans, clearinghouses, and any entity that may need it for billing purposes. 

All of this data will be made available as an Internet download to these groups starting on August 1st.

More information:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand/06a_DataDissemination.asp

https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/StaticForward.do?forward=static.npistart

Ohio State Medical Association Announcement

Previous post on NPPES:
http://msspnexus.blogs.com/mspblog/2007/06/more-alphabet-s.html

Comments

[Darrell]

Is it true that the NPI number benefits only insurers? Darrell Pruitt DDS

[Rita Schwab]

The NPI is a unique billing number used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as well as private insurers. So, while it does benefit insurance companies, I suppose you could also say that it benefits physicians and other providers as well since it helps them get paid.

[Jen]

Also, instead of having all the other myriad numbers to remember - UPIN (which is state-specific), Medicare, Medi-cal (well, here in CA), etc, now it's one universal number. That *should* eventually streamline things on the hospital-sie of the world too.

[CAROL]

we have a new dr coming on staff. he has a npi number (he thinks) thru the VA where he did his internship. how do i get this number since the NPI is unavailable.
thanks

[Martin Jensen]

The CMS NPI Registry went online today. You can go there now to look up the NPI(s) you need to verify. You can find links to the site as well as tips for searching (and maintaining your own records) on my blog. Look in the right margin for (free) NPI Lookup links, including the CMS NPI Repository; see my post from today for a detailed review.

http://blog.hittransition.com/2007/09/bad-data-better.html

Marty