Summary

Description

The National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) downloadable file (also referred to as the NPI Downloadable File) contains FOIA-disclosable NPPES health care provider data for health care providers who have been assigned National Provider Identifiers (NPIs). In accordance with the NPPES Data Dissemination Notice, each month CMS will create a single zipped file that will contain (1) a data file containing all of the FOIA-disclosable health care provider data in NPPES as of a certain date in the month, (2) a Read Me File describing the information in the data file, (3) a Header File containing the format of the data file, and (4) a Code Values document listing the descriptions for all of the codes found in the data file. It is downloadable by users with the necessary technical expertise from http://nppes.viva-it.com/NPI_Files.html on the CMS website. Each month, CMS replaces the previous month's file; only one file is available for downloading at any given time. Visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand/06a_DataDissemination.asp on the CMS website to learn more.