New federal requirement: NPI needs to match IRS data

According to a June 11 announcement by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, doctors will have to reconcile their National Provider Identifiers data with their IRS legal name data in order to get paid. Every aspect of the data must match, including the exact spelling of names, the use of initials and even blank spaces in the data. The slightest discrepancy could send Medicare claims back to the drawing board, say billing experts.