CMS Urges Health Care Providers to Act Now

The countdown begins. In less than a year -- on May 23, 2007 -- health care providers must begin using the National Provider Identifier, or NPI.

The NPI -- instituted as part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 -- will give individual health care providers a unique identifying number. The NPI is a 10-digit, numeric identifier that does not expire or change and that is administered by CMS.

In a May 25 press release, CMS strongly urged health care providers to take action now to have their NPIs in hand well in advance of the deadline. According to CMS, use of the NPI will benefit physicians by helping ensure that medical claims are processed on time and payments are made correctly.

After the NPI is fully implemented, physicians will no longer need different identifying numbers when filing claims with various health plans.

To make the transition as seamless as possible, the Academy has compiled a list of questions and answers about the NPI and made it available on the AAFP Web site.

The information walks physicians through the application process and answers frequently asked question such as:

Additional background and details are available through the NPI overview section on the CMS Web site.