Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

National Provider Identifier will replace all "legacy" IDs in 2005.
Health care providers will have four years to get ramped up on the latest HIPAA transaction standard.
 
As part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act transactions rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has selected the "National Provider Identifier" - a single ID number for all providers - as the standard for identifying health care providers on electronic claims and other transactions. The hope is that the NPI will cut costs and administrative chores by doing away with the multitude of identification numbers currently clogging the system.
 
If you're interested in applying, don't get excited just yet. The National Provider System that will handle the assignment of NPIs is still being developed by CMS and won't be accepting applications until the effective date of the final rule, which is May 23, 2005. As this deadline approaches, information relating to the application process will be made widely available.
 
The compliance deadline for most providers and plans will be May 23, 2007; the deadline for small health plans is May 23, 2008.
 
A final rule establishing the NPI as the standard unique health identifier appears in the Jan. 23 installment of the Federal Register.
 
To see the rule, go to www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a040123c.html.
 
Lesson Learned:  Starting next year providers can say goodbye to multiple ID numbers and hello to a single identifier for all health plans.