NPPES Database Explained: Healthcare Provider Data for the US Market

What Is NPPES?

NPPES stands for National Plan and Provider Enumeration System, run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It maintains the registry of all healthcare providers in the United States who have a National Provider Identifier (NPI) number — over 7 million individual and organisational provider records.

What the Data Contains

The NPPES database includes: NPI number, provider name, provider type (individual or organisation), taxonomy codes (up to 15 codes describing specialty), primary practice address, phone number, enumeration date, credential (MD, DO, RN, PA, NP), and gender.

Provider Taxonomy Codes

Taxonomy codes are the most powerful filtering tool. Code 207Q00000X is Family Medicine. Code 363L00000X is Nurse Practitioner. Code 3336C0002X is Community/Retail Pharmacy. With over 850 distinct taxonomy codes, you can filter the 7 million providers down to very specific segments.

Use Cases for the Data

Medical device sales, pharmaceutical sales rep territory planning, healthcare IT sales, healthcare staffing, market research, and insurance contracting all use NPPES data heavily.