Problems Continue with NPI Implementation

Twenty percent of the addresses associated with the National Provider Identification numbers issued by the federal government this year are wrong, a new report contends. Some 19.7 percent of the business addresses associated with NPIs are invalid because physicians have moved, retired or are deceased, according to a recent audit by SK&A Information Services. SK&A conducted a phone survey of nearly 7,000 providers to assess the accuracy of the numbers. Some NPI data is as much as 28 months old, according to the SK&A because the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began issued standardized NPIs in May 2005. The research also shows that 68 percent of the NPI numbers were assigned more than eight months ago - making the average age of an NPI 13.2 months. The government originally had set May 23 as the deadline for requiring NPI use on claims forms, but in April a contingency plan was developed to delay implementation of NPIs as long as one year. The release of NPI-related information was delayed until September to give providers time to correct information associated with their NPIs. NPI and associated data is critical to the industry; optional data fields associated with the NPI contain legacy provider identification numbers, which payers can use to link existing data in their information systems with the new NPIs.