The National Provider Identification (NPI) is a unique number assigned to health care practitioners (e.g., physicians) and health care organizations (e.g., facilities or group practices). Each health care practitioner (e.g., physician) can obtain an individual NPI number. Health care organizations can obtain multiple NPI numbers to represent different organizational parts.
The [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid]] (CMS) generates the NPI numbers, and applications are available online.
Beginning May 23, 2007, all [[HIPAA]] electronic standard transactions must use an NPI number. Paper claims are being modified to include an NPI.