02/21/10

In late January, 2010, CMS awarded the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) contract to Buccaneer.  The contract is for one base year, February 1, 2010 through January 31, 2011, and four subsequent option years.  The initial total value of the contract is $7,257,564.
NPPES was developed in response to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996.  That legislation required the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to adopt a national standard identifier for health care providers for use in the health care system.  Many of you are familiar with the NPI – the National Provider Identifier, which is currently used as a unique identifier for providers (hospitals, physicians and other providers of service).  NPPES currently assigns NPIs to providers.
Such a unique identifier for health plans, however, does not currently exist.   If such an identifier is created in the future, NPPES will assign that unique identifier to plans just as it assigns the NPI to providers.
Today NPPES ensures that every health care provider is uniquely identified and assigned its own identification number (the NPI) for use in the transactions stipulated by HIPAA in all their health care business.  The purpose behind the legislation was to provide administrative simplification and hence cost savings to both plans and providers.
The purpose of our new NPPES SOW is to provide software development and maintenance support services to CMS as well as continued operational support services for NPPES.  All NPPES enhancements, including the implementation of a unique identifier for plans, will be performed under this contract over the next five years.