Health Information Compliance Alert

The National Plan and Provider Enumeration System which houses the National Provider Identifier database will enforce an eight-character password minimum, CMS says.

• The Obama administration's hold on regulations issued in the waning days of the Bush administration won't affect the timeline for ICD-10 implementation. "The effective date will not be extended and the comment period will not be reopened" for the ICD-10 final rule and the related electronic standards rule, CMS says in a message to providers.

CMS had already delayed the compliance date for ICD-10 from the proposed 2011 to 2013. No further delays were necessary, the agency maintains.

The measure will expand the code set from the current 17,000 codes under ICD-9 to more than 155,000 codes under ICD-10.

• Starting July 7, you should begin seeing your NPI on all paperwork from the National Supplier Clearinghouse. A Feb. 27 transmittal (CR 6314,Transmittal No. 451) from CMS instructs the NSC to "insert the NPI into all correspondence, including pre-printed re-enrollment packages.

"The NSC will also validate all NPIs received from suppliers starting in July, says the transmittal.

• The National Institutes of Health has solicited applications for major research grants. NIH announced on March 10 that applications for a total of $1.5 billion in grants funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are now available. The grants will fund scientific research, construction and improvement of research facilities, and the purchase of scientific equipment.

The NIH will allocate the Recovery Act funds as follows: At least $200 million in Challenge Grants to support research on topics that address specific scientific and health research challenges in biomedical and behavioral research that would benefit from significant 2-year jumpstart funds; $1 billion in construction grants to help build new or improve existing research facilities and help grow the economy; and $300 million in shared instrumentation grants to facilitate the purchase of research equipment that will enable scientists and researchers to complete their critical work.