Practice Management Alert

Question: I-m still confused about what the May 23 deadline is for the NPI changes. Can you please explain what that date means?

Pennsylvania Subscriber

Answer: By May 23, you must be able to submit Medicare claims with only the National Provider Identifier (NPI) in the primary fields.

Caution: If your carrier has asked you to resubmit information on its 855 enrollment form, proceed with particular caution. If you haven't yet submitted a new 855, your carrier may be paying your claims by virtue of a "temporary crosswalk match" that links your legacy number and NPI. But the carriers- upcoming main-tenance of the provider enrollment system may soon throw a wrench into that temporary fix, leaving you in a situation with all claims suddenly rejecting.

To avoid this tripping point, get the 855 form in -- and communicate with your carrier to ensure the system picks up the corrections in a timely manner.

Simply turning in the corrected 855 -- without following up with your Medicare carrier -- may not be enough. CMS has warned that the process of revising the enrollment data "can take a number of months to accomplish."

Resource: More information about NPIs is at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand.