Clearinghouses May be Removing NPI information prior to submission of claims to Medicare

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued an alert that some Clearinghouses are stripping the National Provider Identifier (NPI) prior to submission of the claim to Medicare. If this occurs, it will adversely affect physicians that are participating in the PQRI program (Eligible Professionals) since these claims will not count toward PQRI participation. CMS urges Eligible Professionals that use clearinghouses to check with their clearinghouse to assure NPIs are not being stripped from claims. If the Eligible Professional determines that their clearinghouse is stripping NPIs from the claim, the Eligible Professional may want to consider other billing options. For information on how to use NPI correctly on claims go to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/SE0725.pdf.  For more information on PQRI go to - http://www.cms.hhs.gov/pqri.