Following is a sampling of the questions posed by our users during the course of last year, followed by HCFA's response. The selected format will identify approximately 10 billion providers. The algorithm will be added to the NPI information on the HCFA Home Page in the near future. The concept of group members linking to groups seems to imply intelligence. The group members' NPIs are linked to the group NPI within the NPS database, but the link is not embedded within the NPIs themselves.
Groups often change from day to day.
The taxonomy has been made broad enough to accommodate all kinds of providers that might need to be enumerated for clinical, insurance and research reasons. NPI enumeration is expected to occur in phases, with the providers that need an NPI for insurance transactions being enumerated first. The TIN does not meet all of the needs that were defined for a standard provider identifier. PL104-191 requires the use of a standard provider identifier on certain electronic transactions. The NPS has the capability to produce reports and queries that link the NPIs and SSNs.