The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be disseminating provider/supplier information contained in the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) required to be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Providers/Suppliers who have obtained National Provider Identifiers (NPIs) are encouraged to view their NPPES records to ensure the information furnished when applying for their NPIs is up-to-date and accurate. As CMS prepares to disseminate certain NPPES provider/supplier data in accordance with the NPPES Data Dissemination Notice, providers/suppliers are asked to pay particular attention to the data elements CMS will soon be publicly disclosing.
NPPES FOIA-disclosable data will be made available in an initial file that can be downloaded from the Internet, as well as in a query-only database known as the NPI Registry. There will be monthly update files that will also be downloadable from the Internet. CMS will begin disseminating data on August 1, 2007.
CMS has made available a document to assist providers/suppliers with making updates, changes, and deletions to the FOIA-disclosable NPPES data. This document also lists the data elements CMS will be disclosing publicly.
The document is entitled, '
National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Elements - Data Dissemination - Information for Providers ' (PDF, 108 KB).
CMS strongly recommends providers/suppliers read this document as soon as possible.