Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
NPIs And When To Apply-Now Or Later?
Should a physician wait to apply for a National Provider Identifier? Sometimes there are benefits to being an early adopter, but it may pay off to wait until the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services irons out any bugs in the NPI application process, say experts. After all, physicians have over a year to apply.
Medicare started accepting NPI applications in May and will accept NPIs starting in January, as long as they're accompanied by existing Medicare numbers. Alert: From October 2006 to May 2007, Medicare will accept either NPIs or Medicare numbers - but as of May 23, 2007, Medicare will only accept NPIs.
Some experts advise doctors to wait at least until September or October this year to apply for an NPI because although the CMS web portal is simple to use and relatively straightforward, it may still have some glitches.
If a physician enters information into the online form and it isn't working well, she could be dealing with miscues for months, worries consultant Rob Levin with Billing Solutions in Philadelphia, PA.
"You could spend time completing the application and sending it in and not have the information entered appropriately." Levin plans to wait another month before applying on behalf of his clients.
But don't wait too long. Any kind of enrollment application can take longer than expected. And next June, a new crop of medical school grads will burst onto the scene and they'll all be applying for NPIs, notes consultant Jill Young with Young Medical in East Lansing, MI.
Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement
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