CMS Announces Deadlines for NPI implementation:

• March 1, 2008—This deadline applies to Medicare claims only. Physicians will no longer be permitted to submit paper and electronic claims using just their legacy provider number. All claims must include the physician's NPI, with the option of also including the legacy provider number.

• May 23, 2008—This deadline applies to all public and commercial claims. Physicians will be required to use only their NPI on all electronic claims. Physicians who bill Medicare on paper must also use only their NPI starting on this date. No legacy numbers will be permitted on claims after this date.

The AMCNO urges physicians and their office staff members to review the following points:

For two months, Medicare has been issuing informational warnings on pre-pass reject reports (M389, M390, M391, and or M392) to billers if no NPI was included on the claim. If you have received one of these messages even though you submitted claims bearing your NPI, it is possible a billing agent or clearinghouse removed the NPI before sending the claim to Medicare. Call your clearinghouse or billing agent to determine how to fix future claims.

Begin using your NPI immediately—begin first by sending a few claims through to ensure they process correctly. Doing so now allows time to correct any problems Medicare may encounter when matching your legacy number to your NPI. If these first few claims are rejected, first validate your NPI information in the NPI system. Visit https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/Welcome.do  or call (800) 465–3203 to access the system. Once there, ensure that the correct legacy number appears in the "Other Provider Identification Numbers" field. If the information in the NPI system is correct, contact your contractor and ask they validate what appears in their system.

If required, re-enroll in Medicare immediately. The enrollment process can take some time so in order to allow enough time to meet the March 1, 2008, deadline consider this process if necessary. For more information go to: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/SE0744.pdf