Taken from the CMS website on 2-8-06:
Electronic File Interchange (EFI), also referred to as "bulk enumeration," is a process by which a health care provider or group of providers can have a particular organization (the "EFIO") apply for National Provider Identifiers (NPI) on their behalf. In other words, rather than a provider or group of providers submitting a paper or web NPI application, the EFIO obtains an NPI for him/her/them via the submission of an electronic file. Because a file can contain thousands, even tens of thousands, of providers' applications,the administrative burden on both the provider community and CMS is greatly reduced when this process is utilized.
Below are several documents that explain the EFI process in more detail:
- EFI Summary - This document furnishes a general overview of how the EFI process works.
- EFI Certification Statement Any organization (often referred to as an EFI Organization, or EFIO) that wishes to submit NPI files via EFI must complete and submit this certification statement to the NPI Enumerator. We will be posting the certification statement on this page very shortly. Note that EFIOs should not submit the certification statement prior to the availability of EFI.
- EFI User Manual This manual provides step-by-step instructions on how EFI works from a systems perspective. Unlike the EFI Summary and FAQs document, which is geared more towards explaining the policy aspects of EFI, the User Manual contains screen prints, screen descriptions, etc., that show how EFI actually operates in practice.
- EFI Technical Companion Guide This guide contains important information regarding the formatting of EFI files.
- EFI Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) This link contains a list of FAQs that provides details related to specific aspects of EFI. (coming shortly)
| Downloads | |
EFI Summary [PDF, 40KB] EFI User Manual [PDF, 1537KB] EFI Technical Companion Guide [PDF, 1270KB] |
Below is the supporting statement and related forms and documents for the proposed paperwork collection referenced in CMS-10175 / OMB
- CMS-10175.Draft Certification Statement, version 2
- CMS-10175.OMB-83-I, version 2
- CMS-10175.Supporting Statement, version 2