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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Robert E. Belfanti, Jr. |
  
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National ID number now required for health-care providers
HARRISBURG, June 2 – State Rep. Robert E. Belfanti Jr. is reminding area health-care providers that as of Friday, May 23, they were required to use a new, nationally assigned single identification number for all billing purposes.
Belfanti said health-care providers in Pennsylvania must have their new number – known as a National Provider Identifier – registered with the state Department of Public Welfare, or risk not receiving payment for services they provide to Medical Assistance patients.
The new NPI is required under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, enacted in 1996. The purpose is to provide all doctors, hospitals, clinics and other health-care providers with a single identification number for all billing, instead of the several different numbers that each health-care provider was assigned by Medicare, Medicaid and individual private insurers in the past.
"There will be some bumps in the road with the implementation of this new single identifier system, but in the long run, it will make electronic billing much easier for doctors and insurance companies, reduce paperwork and costs and, ultimately, reduce insurance fraud, especially in Medicare and Medicaid," Belfanti said.
The original deadline for health-care providers to obtain a single NPI from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was May 2007, but the deadline was extended to May 23, 2008, to help health-care providers comply.
Belfanti said health-care providers that have questions about the new National Provider Identifier requirement can get more information by visiting the state Department of Public Welfare's NPI information Web site: www.dpw.state.pa.us/PartnersProviders/MedicalAssistance/DoingBusiness/NPIinfo.
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CONTACT: Michael J. Herzing |