The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that it is implementing a contingency plan for covered entities (other than small health plans) that will not meet the May 23 deadline for compliance with the National Provider Identifier (NPI) regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. The final rule establishing the NPI as the standard unique health provider identifier for health care providers was published in 2004 and requires all covered entities to be in compliance with its provisions by May 23, 2007, except for small health plans, which must be in compliance by May 23, 2008.
The NPI is an identifier that will be used by covered entities to identify health care providers, eliminating the current need for multiple identifiers for the same provider. The NPI replaces all “legacy” identifiers that are currently being used, such as Medicaid provider IDs, individual plan provider IDs, UPINs, etc., and will be required for use on health care claims and other HIPAA transactions.
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According to a news release, CMS made the decision to announce this guidance on its enforcement approach after it became apparent that many covered entities would not be able to fully comply with the NPI standard by May 23, 2007. This guidance would protect covered entities from enforcement action if they continue to act in good faith to come into compliance, and they develop and implement contingency plans to enable them and their trading partners to continue to move toward compliance. The Department of Health and Human Services recognizes that transactions often require the participation of two covered entities and that non-compliance by one covered entity may put the second covered entity in a difficult position.
The enforcement process is complaint driven and will allow covered entities to demonstrate good faith efforts and employ contingency plans. If a complaint is filed against a covered entity, CMS will evaluate the entity’s “good faith efforts” to comply with the standards and would not impose penalties on covered entities that have deployed contingencies to ensure that the smooth flow of payment continues. Each covered entity will determine the specifics of its contingency plan. Contingency plans may not extend beyond May 23, 2008, but entities may elect to end their contingency plans sooner. Medicare will announce its own contingency plan shortly.
A critical aspect of implementing the NPI is the ability for covered entities to match a provider’s NPI with the many legacy provider identifiers that have been used to process administrative transactions. CMS plans to make data available from the National Plan/Provider Enumeration System that will assist covered entities in developing these “crosswalks.”
For more information, visit www.cms.hhs.gov.
