The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says it will try to be flexible when getting doctors, hospitals, health plans and other organizations to use the new National Provider Identifier system.
The system, created by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is scheduled to take effect for most health care organizations, including large and midsize health plans, May 23, and to take effect for small health plans in May 2008.
Continuing to use old, “legacy” identifier systems in affected transactions will be against the rules, and so will using the NPIs together with the old identifiers, according to CMS officials.
“Although compliance with the NPI is a huge undertaking, the result will be greatly enhanced electronic communication throughout the health care community,” officials say.