The HIPAA Act of 1996, that is, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, made the adoption of standard anomalous identifiers imperative under the Administrative Simplification provision. The basic aim the Administrative and Simplification provision is to better the effect and efficiency of the transmission of information related to health, through electronic means. CMS, that is, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has grafted this system, called the NPPES to assign these codes that act as identifiers. These identifiers are anomalous for every person.

A NPI (National Provider Identifier) Registry helps in looking up the provider’s NPPES information. The CMS wishes that every practitioner physician as well as non physician practitioner should follow the following steps and maintain their NPPES registry.    

• Have a NPPES user ID and password, maintain it and keep it a secret. 
  
• The NPPES password should be changed annually. The rules for the reset of password should be religiously followed for maximum protection.
  
• In the NPPES registry follow and check the information, so as to check whether it is the correct and upto date information. 
  

For safety and accessibility of information, people who have got their NPPES registry done should have an account of their own information, like user name, password, security question and other vital information.

One can apply for NPI online, at nppes.cms.hhs.com or can call on 1-800-465-3203 and talk to the NPI enumerator and ask for a paper application. Practicing physicians or non-physician can easily deactivate their NPIs if they do not want to use it or feel the need for it any more.

Sometimes a physician’s medical college or university can also get them their NPPES registry. For this one need to contact their college authorities and find out more about it.