In today’s Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published a notice describing who may have access to data in the National Provider Identifier system (the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System). CMS states it will soon publish an updated System of Records notice that will further clarify its data dissemination policy described in today’s notice.
According to that notice, most of the data elements included in the application for an NPI will be disclosed on the Internet. Not to be disclosed are Social Security numbers, IRS individual taxpayer identification numbers, and dates of birth. The Department of Health and Human Services has determined that the remaining healthcare provider data elements contained in the NPPES (listed in a table in the notice) are required to be provided under the Freedom of Information Act.
Because of the need within the healthcare industry for providers to know the NPIs of other providers in order to submit claims transactions that are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HHS will make the NPPES healthcare provider data available on the Internet in downloadable files and in a query-only database. The initial downloadable file and query-only database will be available 30 days after the publication of the notice (expected to be June 29), with the locations announced on the CMS NPI web page. Read the Federal Register notice.
