How to Update an NPI Record

You are legally required to keep it current

Federal regulation (45 CFR § 162.410) requires a health care provider to report any change to its required NPPES data elements within 30 days of the change. That covers a new practice or mailing address, a new phone number, a taxonomy or specialty change, a name change, and — for organizations — a change of Authorized Official.

Updating online

Most changes can be made directly, without paperwork, at nppes.cms.hhs.gov:

1. Log in with your Identity & Access Management (I&A) System credentials — the same account used to apply originally.
2. Select Manage My NPI and choose the NPI record to edit.
3. Open the section that needs a change: Personal or Organization Information, Address, Taxonomy, or License, among others.
4. Make the change, review it for accuracy, and submit.

The update takes effect in NPPES immediately on submission. It reaches the public downloadable file — and therefore any third-party site, including NPISignal, that is built on that file — on CMS's next weekly or monthly release, not instantly.

When a paper form is required instead

A handful of changes require CMS's paper NPI Application/Update Form, CMS-10114, typically because they need supporting documentation the online system does not collect. The most common example is a date of birth correction, which requires a copy of a driver's license, birth certificate, or similar proof of identity.

The form is available directly from CMS: CMS-10114 — National Provider Identifier (NPI) Application/Update Form.

Changing employers or practice locations

A Type 1 individual NPI belongs to the person, not the employer, so changing jobs does not mean applying for a new NPI — it means updating the existing record's practice address, phone number, and, if the specialty changed, taxonomy. An organization's Type 2 NPI stays with the organization; a provider who leaves a practice does not take that practice's NPI with them, and the departing provider's own Type 1 record is what needs the new address.

Why staying current actually matters

An out-of-date NPPES record is more than a cosmetic problem. Health plans, clearinghouses, and directory tools — including NPISignal — republish or rely on what NPPES has on file. A stale address can mean patients, referring providers, or credentialing staff are looking at contact information the provider left months or years ago, and a stale taxonomy can misclassify a provider in directory searches built around specialty. None of that is enforced in real time; it accumulates quietly until someone notices.

If you cannot access your I&A account

The Identity & Access Management system is separate from NPPES itself, and losing access to it is the most common reason an update stalls. I&A has its own account-recovery process for a forgotten username or password, independent of the NPI application; going through I&A's own recovery flow, rather than attempting to create a second account, avoids ending up with duplicate credentials tied to the same provider.

What you cannot do through NPPES

• Change who a Type 1 NPI belongs to. It is issued to a specific individual and does not transfer.
• Reuse a deactivated NPI for a new provider. A deactivated NPI is retired permanently — see What Does NPI Deactivation Mean?.
• Correct how a third-party site displays your information. That has to be raised with the third party directly; NPPES only controls its own record.

After you update

Because the public file is a monthly full replacement with a weekly incremental update in between, expect a lag of days to a few weeks before a change is visible outside NPPES itself — including on NPISignal, the NPI Registry's own cached views, and any other tool built on the downloadable data.

NPPES — log in to manage an existing NPI — CMS