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The National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Administrative Simplification Standard. The NPI is a unique identification number for covered health care providers and all health plans and health care clearinghouses, who must use the NPIs in the administrative and financial transactions adopted under HIPAA. The NPI is a 10-position, intelligence-free numeric identifier (10-digit number).

All health care providers who are HIPAA-covered entities, whether individuals or organizations, must get an NPI. A HIPAA-covered entity is a health care provider that conducts certain transactions in electronic form, or a health care clearinghouse, or a health plan (including commercial plans, Medicare, and Medicaid).

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) to assign unique identifiers to health care providers. The National Provider Indentifier (NPI) has been the standard identifier for all HIPAA-covered entities (health care providers) since May 23, 2007. Small health plans were required to obtain and use an NPI by May 23, 2008.

This dataset includes over five million health care providers (individuals and organizations) who are assigned NPI. The provider data elements are disclosed to the public by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as listed in the NPPES Data Dissemination Notice (CMS-6060-N). The NPI final rules define the following elements which required to be disclosed as determined by Department of Health & Human Services (HHS): NPI, Entity Type, Provider Name, Credential, Business Mailing Address, Business Location Address, Healthcare Provider Taxonomy Code, Other Provider Identifier, Provider Enumeration Date, NPI Deactivation Date, Provider License Number, Authorized Official Name and Contact Information.