The National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Administrative Simplification Standard. The NPI is a unique, ten-digit numeric identifier assigned to covered health care providers by the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES). This identifying number does not carry any information about health care providers, such as the state in which they practice or their provider type or specialization.
Covered health care providers and all health plans and health care clearinghouses must use the NPIs in the administrative and financial transactions adopted under HIPAA. The NPI must be used by covered health care providers as the provider identifier in the HIPAA standards transactions.
You are required to submit your NPI on all electronic and paper claim submissions.
In order to facilitate proper provider claim matching, the NPI must be submitted upon provider enrollment and maintained within demographic data. NPI and demographic data changes can be submitted to Blue Shield at:
Fax: (916) 350-8860