National Plan and Provider Enumeration System healthcare provider data that are disclosable under the Freedom of Information Act will be disclosed to the public by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) beginning Sept. 4, 2007, via the Internet. Data will be available in two forms: a query-only database, known as the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry, and a downloadable file. The NPI Registry will become operational on Sept. 4, and the downloadable file will be ready approximately one week later.
CMS has posted several documents to help providers understand what the downloadable file will look like, including a “read me” file, header file, and code value document for the downloadable file on the CMS NPI web page.
