Discontinuance of the UPIN
June 1, 2007This article is based on Change Request (CR) 5584 which announces that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will discontinue assigning Unique Physician Identification Numbers (UPINs) on June 29, 2007. The NPI will replace the use of UPINs and other existing legacy identifiers.
However, CMS recently announced a contingency plan that allows for use of legacy numbers for some period of time beyond May 23, 2007. Under the Medicare FFS contingency plan, UPINs and surrogate UPINs may still be used to identify ordering and referring providers and suppliers until further notice.
The CMS will discontinue assigning on June 29, 2007, but CMS will maintain its UPIN public Òlook-upÓ functionality and Registry web site through September 30, 2007.