HIPAA requires the use of unique identifier numbers for use in health care for individuals, employers, health plans, and health care providers.
The following list represents the status of those identifiers:
National Provider Identifier: All numeric and 10 positions in length: the first 9 positions are the identifier and the last position is a check digit, which helps detect invalid NPIs. This string of digits may be prefaced by the value ‘80840,’ which is the card issuer ID.
Employer Identification Number: Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN), 9 digits separated by a hyphen (XX-XXXXXXX). The hyphen is allowed in the third position only; thus the EIN is two digits, hyphen, 7 digits.
National Health Plan Identifier: No proposed standard.
National Individual Identifier: No proposed standard (on hold as of the publication of this guide).
Sybase HIPAA Accelerator provides support for the National Provider Identifier and Employer Identification Number data elements.
