Online UPIN Database upin.ecare.com/

This service is provided free of charge by the Medical College of Wisconsin. They have formatted UPIN data from CMS in an easy-to-search fashion. If the data you seek is not available in the database, please contact CMS directly--not the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Tips for using this database:

1. After you access the database homepage, scroll down to the bottom and click on the state where the physician you are searching for practices. This directory does not have the option for national searches; you have to select a state first.
2. At the bottom of the "state" page, enter appropriate keywords. You can enter the physician's last name, first name, provider number, or zip code. For best results, enter the physician's last name only, then select the right physician from the list you are served.

Dialysis - ESRD Billing Guide from Pennsylvania Medicare

www.hgsa.com/professionals/bguides/esrd.shtml

Laboratory Payment Policy

In response to the charge to assess alternative payment methodologies for laboratories, CMS formed a committee to identify a range of options for paying for different types of medical services, using the existing literature and surveys and interviews with selected payers and providers. The broad list of options was too extensive for analysis within the time and resources available. The committee, therefore, narrowed its focus to those methods likely to be most suitable to the particular characteristics of clinical laboratory services. Discussion of alternative methodologies is found in:

http://books.nap.edu/html/mlpp/ch6.html