The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced May 30 that Medicare fee for service (FFS) has made more progress over the past week since fully implementing the National Provider Identifier (NPI) than the agency expected, with most of the Medicare contractors reporting that over 90 percent of claims are NPI-compliant, with some reporting 100 percent compliance.
CMS clarified that, on May 23, there were a number of rejections for claims with legacy numbers in the secondary provider identifier field. “We are seeing this particular issue rapidly improve,” said the agency in a statement, “as more providers realize the need for NPI-only in secondary identifier fields.” To assist those billing providers that are still unable to obtain NPIs for secondary providers, Medicare has instituted a temporary measure that allows billing providers to use their own NPI in secondary identifier fields.
CMS is also reminding Medicare providers who may be experiencing cash flow problems related to NPI claims processing issues that they should contact their Medicare contractor to determine if they are eligible for an advance or accelerated payment. Read the NPI fact sheet.
