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Group urges adjustments to HHS’ NPI implementation plan

Healthcare Auditing Weekly, February 5, 2007

HHS should permit contingency plans and consider extending the national provider identifier (NPI) transition period by one year, according to a letter submitted to CMS Administrator Leslie Norwalk by the HIPAA Implementation Working Group, a coalition of providers and vendors that includes the American Hospital Association.

Although the industry has made "significant progress" with NPI enumeration, obstacles have slowed progress in the dissemination phase of the NPI transition, the group says in the January 25 letter. During the dissemination phase, trading partners exchange NPIs with one another to ensure proper identification of healthcare providers in transactions.

The industry's previous implementation of HIPAA transactions and code sets offers a useful lesson for the NPI switch in that HHS should not underestimate the amount of time the transition will take, the working group says. One solution is for HHS to permit contingency plans that allow providers and payers to exchange both NPIs and legacy identifiers to ensure payment after the May 23 deadline.

The working group's letter joins a recent letter from the National Committee on Vital Health and Statistics in a grim assessment of the industry's progress with NPI implementation.

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