All clinicians should get a NPI - National Provider Identifier number - because it will become the common identification across all health insurance payers and will no doubt be used for other purposes in the future.
The NPI is part of HIPAA and can be required after May 22, 2007. It is free (“Your Federal Taxes at work”) and takes about 15 minutes of your time. You can go to the website at
nppes.cms.hhs.gov or the phone is 1-800-465-3203.
I found some of the information required confusing and so wrote a five page guide to this. You can read “How to Apply for a National Provider Indentifier Number” by clicking on the
tab to the left