What is the NPI registry, and why might it show an old address?
The National Provider Identifier (NPI) is a 10-digit, intelligence-free number that CMS assigns to every covered health care provider and organization under HIPAA's administrative simplification standard2. It never changes, and by design it carries no information about your specialty or location2. The address that shows up next to your NPI in the public NPI Registry is not generated by CMS. It is whatever practice location and mailing address you, your billing company or your credentialing service last entered into the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System, known as NPPES. NPPES creates one record per provider and only changes that record when someone submits an update3. If your practice moved, merged locations or changed suites and nobody logged back in to correct NPPES, the registry keeps showing the old address, because nothing in the system prompts a change on its own.
Which parts of your NPPES record are public?
Most of what you submit to NPPES becomes public. The 2007 Federal Register notice that set the data dissemination policy lists the specific data elements CMS must disclose under the Freedom of Information Act, including practice address, mailing address, phone number and taxonomy code3. Two elements are withheld: Social Security numbers and dates of birth are not released, because HHS determined they are not disclosable under FOIA3. Everything else is visible for free in the NPI Registry, a query-only database CMS updates daily, and in downloadable bulk files any organization can import4. There is no way to opt out or suppress the record for an active NPI4. That matters if you were hoping a wrong address was a privacy setting you could simply switch off.
| Data element | Public in the NPI Registry? | How to change it |
|---|---|---|
| NPI number | Yes, permanently | Cannot be changed; the number stays with the provider for life2 |
| Practice location address | Yes | Log into NPPES or submit form CMS-101144 |
| Mailing address | Yes | Same as above; a PO box is allowed only for home-based or telehealth-only providers5 |
| Phone and fax number | Yes | Update online through your NPPES account4 |
| Taxonomy or specialty code | Yes | Update online through your NPPES account4 |
| Social Security number and date of birth | No | Never disclosed publicly under FOIA3 |
How do you correct an address in NPPES?
Providers who applied online can log back into their NPPES account and edit the address themselves4. If you never set up an online account, or someone else did years ago, you can call the NPI Enumerator or email them, or mail a signed CMS-10114 Application/Update Form4. Whoever submitted your original application, including a billing service or credentialing company acting as an Electronic File Interchange Organization, can also push the correction through if you still work with them1. Federal regulation 45 CFR 162.410(a)(4) requires covered providers to notify NPPES within 30 days of any change to a required data element, which includes your practice address1. Providers who furnish services exclusively from home, such as some telehealth practitioners, may also list a PO box instead of a home address as their mailing address5. In practice, most practices update NPPES only when someone remembers to, well past that 30-day window.
- Log into your account at nppes.cms.hhs.gov and open your provider record.
- If you cannot access the account, call the NPI Enumerator at 1-800-465-3203 or email customerservice@npienumerator.com4.
- Update the practice location address, mailing address and phone number, then save the changes.
- Check the public NPI Registry the next day, since it updates daily, to confirm the correction shows4.
- Tell your billing company or Electronic File Interchange Organization about the move so they do not resubmit the old address later.
Why do directories and AI assistants keep repeating the wrong address?
NPPES data is built to be reused. CMS makes a full replacement monthly file, weekly incremental updates and a full deactivation file available for free download specifically so health plans, clearinghouses, directory sites and data vendors can build their own databases from it6. Once a wrong address sits in that bulk file, it gets copied into insurance directories, provider look-up tools and, in practice, into the structured listings that AI assistants and search tools draw on when a patient asks where to find you. This is the same copying pattern described in how a health practice becomes the one AI recommends. Correcting the source record in NPPES does not instantly erase every copy already sitting in someone else's database, but it stops new copies from spreading and gives you one authoritative record to point to when you ask a directory to fix its listing.
What NPPES accuracy will not do for you
Correcting NPPES is necessary, but it is not the whole job. It will not automatically update your Google Business Profile, your listing on an insurance company's site, or old citations already spread across directories, which is the same consistency problem covered in NAP consistency for a health practice. It also will not remove a deactivated NPI from public view: once a provider's NPI is deactivated, that provider cannot view or edit the record at all, and CMS will only display the deactivated NPI and its deactivation date6. And fixing your address does not change the NPI itself, since the number is permanent and, by design, never carries location or specialty information2. Think of NPPES as one input to correct, not the whole fix. If you want a quick outside check of what patients, search engines and AI tools currently see about your practice, run the free credibility audit.