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color="#4f604f"><font size="2" color="#4f604f"><font size="3"><strong>Medicare
Announces New NPI Requirements Starting March 1</strong></font><font size="2"
color="#000000">Physical therapists will be required to include their National
Provider Identifier (<a target="_blank" linktype="undefined"
href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001gtXO7OR-0SfbjKC6kHWlUvmX9qzr5gPbUWsv3I-DwMaWK9wMkQNwBnjyuz7-TccN01i77rjYKAAOdYJU_ab4q9JUBc8GDsYWgGCRhsryT5AvzxcI2-mw9Z0xEmt4hQQdmqiMVCYlF6Y94vtezC3RFLPo3gFUD0D4UGWtOHMSf_Edz3iDDb7068mf_ExXAOuTO8p_3DBzdORQiJUHCcp31zTlK3bnZ6NqHRtbsQRuPfQ1Akh8SkllFBi_ZQmE4vtu-YiQ6Oa_jVilDC-HLvtPv7wbIvWbWVqyQPUdbXslFyk="><font
color="#0000ff">NPI</font></a>)
in their Medicare claims' primary fields beginning March 1, 2008.
Claims that only contain legacy numbers in the billing, pay-to, or
rendering fields will be rejected or returned, according to a <a target="_blank"
linktype="undefined"
href="http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001gtXO7OR-0SeM1Fg_XIuG3gZ7dU-L9sX1cw98JkzPb6JXeQ2qdY2exRuiEkRvbMjmINSet2iQ5UnvxnitjU2FASPuWxKZw4jMxxo43_r20IeBlxLrLW1DnzRx9YlAmS_pKEstnMNyBMUHnu84i2X8NQ=="><font
color="#0000ff">recent announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services</font></a> (CMS). CMS cited successful transition to the NPI as cause
for the next step in implementing the 10-digit numeric
identifier.</font></font></font></font></span></font></td></tr></tbody></table>