Beginning today, May 1, 2006, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announces the capability for health industry organizations to submit health care providers' applications for National Provider Identifiers (NPIs) to the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) via Electronic File Interchange (EFI). With EFI, a CMS-approved health industry organization can submit a health care provider's NPI application data, along with the application data of many other health care providers, in a single electronic file in a CMS-specified format.
EFI is an alternative to health care providers having to apply for their NPIs via the web-based or paper application process. After the NPPES processes a file, it makes available to the organization a downloadable file containing the NPIs of the enumerated health care providers. Interested health industry organizations should avail themselves of the EFI materials available from the CMS NPI page (www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand/) and from the NPPES page (https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov) before downloading and completing the Certification Statement (available at https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov) and registering as EFI Organizations. A completed Certification Statement must be approved by CMS before an interested health industry organization can participate in EFI.

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