On February 7, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) performed a periodic review of activity and deactivated all providers that had not billed Medi-Cal for 12 consecutive months. All deactivated providers were notified by letter of the deactivation of their record.

On February 17, however, DHCS found that a small subgroup of providers, those with multiple locations under the same National Provider Identifier (NPI), were incorrectly deactivated due to a system error.

Physicians who received a deactivation letter and believe they were deactivated in error should contact DHCS at DHCSMASSDEACT@dhcs.ca.gov. Physicians who were deactivated because they had not billed Medi-Cal in 12 months can re-apply through the Provider Enrollment Division.

DHCS has advised that providers who are only utilizing their NPIs for rendering, ordering, referring or prescribing purposes can continue to do so, even if their record was deactivated.    

Additional questions about the deactivation can be directed to DHCS at DHCSMASSDEACT@dhcs.ca.gov.