CCN and PAC ID to NPI: Crosswalk between the NPI Registry and Hospital and Group Records

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes a wide range of information on U.S. hospitals, which all carry the unique identifier, the CCN number (CMS Certification Number)*. On the other hand (which often seems to not know what its counterpart is doing), CMS also publishes the frequently updated NPPES database (National Plan and Provider Enumeration System), commonly known as the NPI Registry, which uses the NPI number (National Provider Identifier) as its unique identifier. While hospitals and other medical organizations will have only one CCN Number, they are required to have at least one NPI number, and they're permitted to have as many as they like (and they do seem to like quite a few). 

And, between these two ID systems, the CCN and the NPI, ne'er the twain shall meet.

CarePrecise has developed a sophisticated system to "roll up" an organization's NPI-numbered records with its CCN number (and with the PAC ID for practice groups, which stands for "PECOS Associate Control ID"). This mighty trick produces some eye-opening data, such as contact names and titles, license information, specializations, market data added by CarePrecise to NPI records, and the ability to crossmatch groups to their members and hospital affiliations, directly from their NPI numbers. It also permits integration across the complete line of CarePrecise provider data packages, and all of the information that CarePrecise collects or creates and then merges to the NPI records.

Currently, these CarePrecise rollups (or "crosswalks" if you prefer) are the only available such thing in a relatively comprehensive dataset. The full rollup of all medical facility NPI numbers is available for hospitals, and a single "priority" NPI number is currently available for practice groups, with a full rollup of all PAC ID-to-NPI linkages in development with a tentative release date in May 2023.

The hospital CCN-to-NPI crosswalk is part of the Authoritative Hospital Database (APD), and the Group PAC ID-to-NPI link is part of the Authoritative Physician Database (APD) and CarePrecise Platinum.

The "rolling up" is made possible by several CarePrecise innovations, starting with the CoLoCode (co-location code) affixed to almost every provider in the 7 million+ record CarePrecise master reference database. To fill in additional linkages, the Placekey is used. Placekey is a unique "point of interest" identifier, also attached to essentially every one of the 7 million+ CarePrecise provider records, which can readily be used to link data between data suppliers for a variety of purposes.

* The CMS Certification Number has replaced the term Medicare Provider Number, Medicare Identification Number or OSCAR Number. The CCN is used to verify Medicare/Medicaid providers for survey and certification, assessment-related activities and communications. Note that CarePrecise includes the old OSCAR Number in its CarePrecise Complete and CarePrecise Advanced/Platinum datasets, if reported by the provider in their NPI record(s) or available through third-parties, but this is a small fraction of records, and the OSCAR numbers have changed, hence the need for a CCN-to-NPI crosswalk.

Using Placekey® for Distance Calculation and Business Intelligence

Besides using the CoLoCode or SelectGeo location data from CarePrecise, another way to append location data to your dataset (and make it compatible with others, such as the healthcare provider data packages available through CarePrecise SafeGraph) involves Placekey, and it's free!

Unlike geocode appending of latitude and longitude, which can be pricey for very large datasets, Placekey is free to use for creating the keys from any U.S. or Canadian addresses. You simply upload your addresses via the API, and the keys are returned. Once you've keyed your in-house data's addresses and business names, you can then connect with data from a growing number of vendors, such as First American Data & Analytics, Experian, Snowflake, and Landgrid.

Imagine being able to connect your data via the physical address of your customers to access deeper information on them—information that could be valuable business intelligence. These keys facilitate those connections, simplifying analysis. By integrating Placekey's technology into existing systems, companies now link disparate datasets from multiple vendors quickly and accurately. They gain a better understanding of customer behavior without having to resort to manual processes or expensive integration solutions.

Case Example

Suppose you're in charge of siting a new medical practice. When deciding where to locate a new doctor's office, visitor traffic analysis can be used to understand which areas have the most potential for attracting customers—the places where concentrations of patients visiting other practice locations are traveling from. Additional intelligence is gleaned from looking at places where those prospective patients shop and dine, as these routes from home to shopping, etc., are traveled frequently, and siting a practice on the route places the consumer proximate to the new office. 

This can now all be achieved by mapping the locations of other doctor offices based on a basic CarePrecise dataset, and then overlaying visitor traffic patterns and volumes, and other consumer behaviors. Organizations can more confidently choose a possible location. Extended applications come to mind immediately, such as gathering patient visit volumes of competitors. And you can gather these volumes for your own trading partners, and discover the connections between, say, your affiliated hospitals and your competitors' locations to better understand your value in the trade relationship. Being able to see these pictures is like x-ray vision into opportunity.

How It Works

Placekey's unique approach is made possible by its standardized Placekeys, which are uniquely generated for each point-of-interest (POI) based on the physical address. Placekeys can be used to identify and link POIs across multiple datasets from vendors, making it easier to join data from different sources and improve decision making. Placekey's integration with CarePrecise enables users to confidently connect to third party data, allowing them to make informed decisions quickly. 

Use Placekey and Safegraph® to Calculate Distance

Placekey offers a tutorial on its site that describes how the keys can be used to calculate the distance between two POIs based on datasets from Safegraph. The tutorial walks through the steps using the free open source R programming language. R is probably the most commonly used programming languages used in data mining. Safegraph is a curator of datasets.

This technology promises to revolutionize the way healthcare organizations utilize their data own data, and access the additional data they need for vital business intelligence. Where this technology will lead is as yet unfathomable.