The National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a unique identification number issued to health care providers in the United States by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The NPI is a 10-digit number that remains with the provider regardless of job or location changes, ensuring a consistent way to identify providers in healthcare transactions.
NPIs are crucial in healthcare for streamlining the billing and coding process, facilitating the efficient exchange of medical information among providers, insurance companies, and patients. They help to reduce fraud by accurately identifying the provider involved in healthcare services and enhance the privacy and security of patient information by standardizing the identification system across the healthcare industry.