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SAS Name
NCPDP_ID
This is the unique, national identification number assigned by the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) to every licensed pharmacy in the United States and its territories.
This field also enables linkage between pharmacies in the Part D Event (PDE) file and the CCW Pharmacy Characteristics file.
Values: Null/missing, 5-digit numeric value
Source: PDE and NCDPD DataQ™
This variable was new in 2014. Beginning with 2014 data, the NCPDP_ID is used in place of the CCW_PHARM_ID in the Part D Pharmacy Characteristics File. Researchers who received CCW data from 2006-2013 and wish to identify the NCPDP_ID associated with the CCW_PHARM_ID may request the "Pharmacy Bridge File", which is designed for this purpose.
Investigators who wish to obtain Pharmacy Characteristics files must choose between the pharmacy IDs on the PDE (variable called the service provider ID [SRVC_PRVDR_ID]), or the proprietary NCPDP_ID that will allow linkage between the PDE and Pharmacy Characteristics files.
The NCPDP_ID variable is populated by linking the service provider identification number (SRVC_PRVDR_ID) from the source PDE to the proprietary National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) Database. The variable is populated for every PDE that can be linked to the NCPDP pharmacy data for that year, and will occasionally be null if there was no conclusive link between the service provider identification number in the source PDE data and the provider identification numbers in the NCPDP pharmacy data. Within the NCPDP database, this ID used to be called the NABP Number. NCPDP also enumerates licensed Alternate Dispensing Sites and Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Providers.
This variable usually represents a unique pharmacy entity, which historically was a retail store. However, as the pharmacy industry has evolved, some retail stores have added other lines of business, such as filling prescriptions for long-term care facilities. In these cases, the pharmacy can ask NCPDP to issue them more than one identification number to keep the billing separate for their multiple lines of business.
Additional details regarding the NCPDP source data are available at: http://dataq.ncpdp.org/.