The compliance date for covered entities (health plans, health care providers, and clearinghouses) to use the National Provider Identifier is about four months away (May 23, 2007). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have yet to release an NPI dissemination policy. CMS has stated that beginning on that date it require that Medicare claims include the NPI. The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) has called upon the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “allow the use of legacy identifiers for 12 months after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enables access to the National Plan/Provider Enumeration System database” according to Medical Data Management magazine. Getting action probably will require Congressional pressure on CMS.