- UPIN
A unique physician identification number, or UPIN, is used by Medicare to identify doctors across the United States. UPINs are six-place alpha numeric identifiers assigned to all physicians.
The United States Congress authorized the creation of UPIN IDs through Section 9202 of the
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. TheCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible for creation of the UPIN IDs for each doctor accepting Medicare insurance.A directory of UPINs was formerly available from the UPIN Registry, as required by Section 4164 of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, but this service was discontinued after May 23, 2008.
UPINs will be discontinued in the second quarter of 2007 and will replaced by
National Provider Identifier , or NPI numbers. There is currently an online NPI look up through the CMS website. https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/NPIRegistryHome.doExternal links
* [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PrivacyActSystemofRecords/SR/itemdetail.asp?itemID=CMS023317 CMS's System Of Record (SOR) page for UPIN] — includes a link to detailed information published in the
Federal Register
* [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NonIdentifiableDataFiles/08_UniquePhysicianIdentificationDirectory.asp UPIN discontinuation notice from CMS]
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