Disclaimer

NPISignal is not a government site and is not medical, legal, or credentialing advice. Read exactly what that means.

Updated August 23, 2026

Not a government site

NPISignal is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the U.S. government, CMS, HHS-OIG, the General Services Administration, or any other federal, state, or local agency. It is an independent service that republishes public federal data and reports what it finds in it.

Not medical advice

Nothing on NPISignal is medical advice, a medical opinion, or a recommendation about any specific provider or treatment. Decisions about your health care should be made with a qualified professional, not on the basis of anything shown here.

Not legal or compliance advice

Nothing on NPISignal is legal advice or a substitute for legal or compliance counsel, including on questions about HIPAA, billing, exclusion screening, or credentialing obligations.

An NPI is not a license

An active NPI record means a number was issued by NPPES and has not been deactivated — nothing more. It does not mean the provider is currently licensed, board-certified, or in good standing with any regulatory body. See Does an NPI Mean a Provider Is Licensed? for the full explanation.

A screening result is not a compliance determination

What a result means

NPISignal does not determine, certify or guarantee that any organization is compliant, or that any person or entity is or is not excluded. A screening reports what was found in the data NPISignal holds, as of a stated date. The strongest thing it says about a clean result is that no potential match was identified — never that somebody is cleared, verified or compliant.

A potential match is a lead, not an identification

Automated identity matching produces both false positives and false negatives. Common names produce matches routinely, and NPISignal labels them as possible matches for exactly that reason. It matches on publicly published identity fields and cannot verify identity using a Social Security number or an employer identification number — the public exclusion files contain neither. Where two people share a name and a date of birth, the public data genuinely cannot separate them; HHS-OIG operates its own verification process for that situation and it is the authoritative route. Confirm any match with the issuing agency before acting on it.

An unchecked source is not a clean result

When NPISignal cannot reach a source it says so, and reports that source as unavailable rather than as finding nothing. A screening in which a source failed is marked incomplete and names the records that were not checked. Do not read an incomplete screening as a negative one.

A provider profile shows only NPI-based results

The federal screening section on a provider profile reflects only an exact match between that NPI and an exclusion record. It does not publish name-based potential matches, because that page is indexed under a real person’s name. A name-based screening is available on the exclusion search, and its results are never indexed. See Methodology for exactly how the matching works and where it stops.

Coverage is two federal sources, and no more

NPISignal covers the HHS-OIG LEIE and SAM.gov. It does not cover state Medicaid exclusion lists, licence status, disciplinary actions, the National Practitioner Data Bank, or a criminal background check. If your contracts require any of those, they remain separate work.

Data currency

All data on NPISignal comes from periodically published federal files and reflects whatever those sources contained as of NPISignal's most recent import, not real time. See Data Sources for the exact dates currently in use.

Use at your own judgment

For a provider's current license status, contact the relevant state licensing board directly.
For a provider's current exclusion status, search the LEIE directly at HHS-OIG's own site, and SAM.gov for federal debarment.
For the authoritative NPI record itself, use the CMS NPI Registry.
For state Medicaid exclusions, check the relevant state's own list.
For anything with legal or employment consequences, take advice. This site is a starting point, not an answer.