- Section 1 Introduction
- Introduction
- Federal Government Administration
- Fundamentals of Medicare: State Responsibilities
- Fundamentals of Medicare: Participating Providers
- Voluntary and Involuntary Termination of Provider Agreement
- Disclosure of Health Insurance Information
- Privacy Act
- National Provider Identifier
- Legacy Provider Numbers/Provider Transaction Access Numbers (PTANs)
- Medicare Administrative Contractors
- Fundamentals of Medicare: Information References
- Acronyms
- Fundamentals of Medicare: Glossary of Terms
- Section 2 Medicare Basics
- The History of Medicare
- What Is the Medicare Program and How Is It Funded?
- Medicare Eligibility and Premiums
- The Social Security Administration and Medicare Enrollment
- The Medicare Card
- Medicare Part A
- Inpatient Hospital Care
- Skilled Nursing Facility Inpatient Care
- Home Health Care Benefit
- The Hospice Benefit
- Medicare Part B Medical Insurance
- Fundamentals of Medicare - Medicare Program Exclusions
- Medicare Advantage Organizations
- Medicare Secondary Payer
- Supplemental Insurance
- Coordination of Benefits Trading Partners
- Section 3 Fraud and Abuse
- Section 4 Getting Ready to Bill Medicare
Section 1: Introduction
National Provider Identifier
The NPI is a HIPAA Administrative Simplification standard. The NPI is a unique identification number for covered health care providers that have replaced the legacy provider number.
Covered health care providers and all health plans and health care clearinghouses will use the NPI in the administrative and financial transactions adopted under HIPAA. The NPI is a ten-position, intelligence-free numeric identifier (ten-digit number). This means that the numbers do not carry other information about healthcare providers, e.g., the state in which they live or their medical specialty. The NPI must be used in lieu of legacy provider identifiers in the HIPAA standards transactions.
If you are a health care provider who bills for services, you will need an NPI. If you bill Medicare for services, you definitely need an NPI! Getting an NPI is easy and free. If you delay applying for your NPI, you risk your cash flow and that of your health care partners as well.
As outlined in the federal regulation, HIPAA-covered providers must also share their NPI with other providers, health plans, clearinghouses, and any entity that may need it for billing purposes.
More detailed information on NPI can be found on the CMS website.
Revised 1/2021