Orthopedic Coding Alert

To save yourself time and effort, gather info before you start You don't need to pay someone else to apply for your practice's National Provider Identifier numbers, even though the deadline is fast approaching. Take a look at how easy it is to acquire your new NPI on your own.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that all carriers except very small carriers, healthcare clearinghouses, and HIPAA-covered healthcare providers begin using unique National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers by May 23, 2007. Nothing to It Before you can comply with this regulation, you have to apply for NPI numbers for your practitioners -- and despite what you may have heard, that's an easy process.

-Applying for the new NPI is extremely easy and costs nothing except about 30 minutes of your time, depending on the number of providers you have,- says Laura Bassett, RMM, office manager for Mid-South Surgeons PLLC in Columbia, Tenn.

Follow these easy steps and accomplish the task in a short time. Gather Your Info Before Starting To fill out an NPI application, you-ll need the physician's or group's taxonomy code, license number(s), Unique Physician Identification Numbers (UPIN), and Medicare and Medicaid numbers.
 
-Have all of the information for the provider available in front of you when you begin the process,- says Margaret Fisher, CCS-P, ACS-GI, business office manager for the Tacoma Digestive Disease Center.

Remember: If you-re filling out your application online, you won't be able to save your work and go back into the application you started if you need to stop and locate information. You-ll have to start over. Make sure you have the following information on-hand before starting the online process:

- Social Security Number or IRS tax identification number

- Date of birth

- Country of birth

- State of birth

- Mailing address

- Practice location address and telephone number

- Taxonomy (provider specialty)

- State license information, if needed. Tip: If you bill for more than one physician, you-ll need to get an NPI for the group as well as each individ-ual provider. Choose Online vs. Paper Applications Decide whether you-re filing online or if you-re going to go the paper route. Either way, you-ll file through the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES).

Filing on paper: You can print a copy from http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand/Downloads/NPIapplication.pdf.

Once you-ve filled out the application, you should mail it to the address listed at the bottom of the application. Be sure to print legibly and include an original signature from the healthcare provider on the application.

Filing online: Visit https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/Welcome.do and follow the instructions, including selecting a user name and password. Make sure you write down and keep track of your user name information, watch out that you don't make any [...]