Old physician ID numbers are still OK for now, Medicare says

CMS will review NPI readiness on a monthly basis to decide when it will start rejecting claims with outdated identifiers.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. May 14, 2007.

Washington -- The government will allow physicians who are not yet able to use their National Provider Identifiers on Medicare claims to use their old ID numbers for part of the next 12 months, but officials could pull the plug on this extension at any time.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last month decided to implement a contingency plan when federal officials determined that not enough physicians, hospitals and other Medicare participants would be able to start using their NPIs on claims by the May 23 deadline. The new identifier will replace any existing IDs that doctors have used to bill the federal government or private insurers electronically.

Medicare will accept fee-for-service claims with old identifiers until at least July 1. If in June CMS determines that not enough participants have their NPIs and are ready to use them, it will push that date back to Aug. 1. The agency will continue to make monthly assessments of NPI readiness to decide when to end the contingency period.

At any point in the next 12 months, CMS could inform doctors that the following month will be the last one in which they can bill the program using old ID numbers, known as "legacy" identifiers. If they try to use them after that time, doctors risk Medicare claims denial and a halt in reimbursements. Under no circumstances will Medicare extend its acceptance of old identifiers past May 23, 2008.