NPI

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could one not just get the NPI and then use it on hcfa's? LLMark Wootton wrote: The other thing I think I should point out is that you need to notify all your carriers and payers of your NPI number etc. Its not done automaticaly. BCBS requires a form to be filled out and a copy of your NPI letter to be sent to them and then they process it. Medicare is the same. And so are numerous other payers. You have to let everyone know your NPI number it's not done automatically. So please everyone needs to make sure you have notified everyone else regarding your number change for when you do transmit your claims to the payers with the NPI number I would contact all Provider relations and speak with someone to make sure you filled out the correct forms send the copy of the letter etc. And

after that point call back and make sure it's all processed and correct in the system for when you begin using your NPI in MAY. Most insurance companies have been sending notices for most of the past year advising everyone about this. Some came with EOMB's others were justletters sent to everyone. But yes one mess up and they will stop paying so please everyone be very carefull,Mark WoottonPhysician Billing Services Inc. NPI fearsApologies to those also on the AAFP Practicemgt list, as I posted this there too.Maybe I am just paranoid…. But I am getting a terrible feeling about this whole NPI thing. I sent the following question in to FPM, but what do you guys think? “My reading of items in AAFP publications on the subject of the NPI leads me to believe that I should have one NPI number and possibly two taxonomy codes. I am a solo family doctor

( Skaggs, MD) with no ancillary staff such as NPs or PAs, so all the care provided under my supervision is provided by me. My practice has a corporation/is a corporation (Fayette Family Medicine, PSC) because I am told that somehow that protects my financial assets (although all it really seems to do is provide lawyers, accountants and the government with more opportunities to help themselves to my financial assets). Some of my insurance payments come made out to Skaggs, and some come made out to Fayette Family Medicine. Patients generally write their copay checks out to “FFM” because that’s fastest. I practice in only one location except for the occasional home visit to infirm elderly patients who can’t make it to the office.I thought I just needed one NPI, and one taxonomy code, but now my billing service says that I need one NPI for myself and another for Fayette Family Medicine. She thinks I only need one taxonomy code, but I read that

there is a taxonomy code for groups even if there is only one provider in the group. Now she also says that I might need a different NPI for when I make home visits, and yet another for if I see patients in the hospital (something I rarely do, as I have a good hospitalist available).Yesterday I heard a speaker who works for our state Medicaid plan say that although CMS originally said one NPI per provider, now they ARE using multiple numbers and his system can’t figure out how to make it work, so they are just sticking with the legacy system for the foreseeable future (he said a year at least)What should I do? I have a terrible feeling that this is all going to add up to nobody paying me for months.Last year when I changed billers I accidentally gave the new biller a Medicare number that was from when I had worked for a previous employer. We discovered the problem within 3 weeks and fixed it, so we were submitting the correct number, but

it still took Medicare six whole months to start paying me again AT ALL. That’s right, five months and one week of correctly filed claims did not get paid as a result of three weeks of incorrectly filed ones. I finally had to have my Congressional Representative intervene to get them to start paying me again. And of the three weeks of incorrectly filed claims (from March of 2006, about half of those have STILL not been paid. That experience has left me a little gun-shy. If all the payers are like my state Medicaid administrator and built their systems on one number per provider, so they have only one field in their programs for that number, but there are multiple numbers out there……what is going to happen? What is going toprevent all of them from saying “Sorry, we’re having problems with this new system, bear with us and we’ll pay you when we get it fixed.” & nb sp; The doctor earning the “median $165,000” can probably survive for a while on half that, but I only

made $30,000 last year, and I CAN’T survive if half or more of that dries up for months. Any suggestions out there?Annie