Health Information Management

NPI headaches, confusion cause worry over impending start date

HIPAA Weekly Advisor, December 13, 2004

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Physicians can apply for their National Provider Identifiers (NPIs) beginning May 23, 2005, but health plans aren't required to accommodate NPIs until 2007. Physicians who don't receive their NPIs-established under the Administrative Simplification Compliance Act of HIPAA-could face delayed or denied payment for their services, according to AMNews.

Some in the industry worry that two years isn't long enough to dole out NPIs to every physician. Others believe that confusion regarding the application will hold up the process. For example, the application itself requests certain physician identifiers such as Medicaid billing numbers that the application instructions designate as optional.

Groups such as the American Medical Association and the National Uniform Claims Committee offer CMS some suggestions such as listening to provider comments and allowing medical societies to provide information on their physicians in bulk, reported AMNews. CMS says it is open to these changes.



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