As a result of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Department of the Health and Human Services adopted the National Provider Identifier as the standard to uniquely identify health care providers.

• HHS published the implementation guidelines in a Final Rule in January 2004opens in a new window.
• This rule became effective May 2005.
• The compliance date for all covered entities except small health plans was May 23, 2007. 

The goal of the NPI is to simplify the administration of the health care system and enable efficient electronic transmission of health information. 

In a separate Final Rule published September 2012opens in a new window, HHS established an additional requirement for covered health care providers. The organization, such as a pharmacy, must require certain prescribers to obtain and disclose an NPI. The compliance date for this Final Rule was May 6, 2013.

The HIPAA Transactions, Code Sets and Identifiers assisted the MHS with implementing and using the NPI as required in HIPAA adopted electronic transactions.