So, you’ve gotten your National Provider Identifier (NPI), right? Did you know you will also have to include the NPIs of referring physicians and health care facilities  on your claim forms?

Obtaining NPIs from referring providers can be a time consuming hassle. This has been a major obstacle in the implementation of the NPI rule.

This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finally — after many frustrating delays — announced that  physicians and other covered entities will soon be able to look up NPIs by simply entering the provider or facility name into an online database. This online lookup will be available on June 28, 30-days after CMS’s official NPI data dissemination policy was published in the Federal Register.

The online lookup will return NPIs and relevant demographic information, but it will not disclose social security numbers, dates of birth, or IRS taxpayer identification numbers, according to CMS.

Physicians are encouraged to look up their information at the NPI enumerator’s website, https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov, and make any necessary updates or corrections to ensure that their information is accurate before it is disclosed by CMS.

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