As you know, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that Medicare carriers and other payors would be allowed to continue accepting legacy provider identification numbers until May 23, 2008. Following this announcement, CMA surveyed major payors in California to assess their NPI readiness and determine whether or not they would be taking advantage of this grace period.

The results of the survey are available to members at the members-only website.

Payors can take advantage of the one-year grace period as long as they have a contingency plan in place and are able to demonstrate “good faith efforts” to comply with the regulations.

However, Medicare and other payors may at any time after May 23, 2007, decide to stop accepting legacy numbers and to only accept the new NPIs. To avoid disruptions in cash flow, physicians should make sure that they have their NPIs no later than May 23, and have registered them with all payors.

Contact: CMA’s legal information line, 415/882-5144 or legainfo@cmanet.org.