CMS implements NPI only on HIPAA electronic transactions and paper claim forms beginning May 23, 2008

Next Friday, May 23, 2008, in keeping with the Contingency Guidance issued in April 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will end the National Provider Identifier (NPI) contingency plan. At that time, all Medicare fee-for-service providers will be required to submit their NPI only in all provider identifier fields for all HIPAA and paper transactions where a provider identifier is required. These transactions include all electronic and paper claims (837I, 837P, NCPDP, DDE and paper CMS-1500 and UB-04), the 276/277 claims status transaction, the 270/271 eligibility transaction, 835 remittance advice and SPR paper remittance). If you send Medicare a transaction with a Medicare legacy identifier in any of the provider fields, the claim will be rejected. If claims are rejected, you should first go to your NPPES record and validate that your claim form information is consistent with the NPPES database. If claims continue to be rejected, you may need to update your Medicare enrollment information (CMS-855 form) if you have not done so since 2003.
Learn more about the NPI implementation...

CMS will host a national NPI Roundtable Q&A session to address questions from the Medicare provider community on May 19 from 2-3:30 p.m. EDT. There will be no presentations during this call, but the telephone lines will be open to take questions following a brief introduction.
Register for the call (PDF)...