NPIs: Deadline nearing for Medicare claims

Effective March 1, you'll have to include your National Provider Identifier (NPI) in the primary fields if you submit Medicare fee-for-service 837P and CMS-1500 claims. It's okay to continue to submit claims using NPI/legacy pairs, but you can't send in claims with only the old identifier in the primary fields (i.e., the billing, pay-to, and rendering fields). Legacy identifiers can be included only in the secondary fields, until further notice. Claims without an NPI or an NPI/legacy pair in the primary fields will be rejected or returned, CMS says.