The acronym of the UPIN number stands for Unique Physician Identification Number. The UPIN number is not just a numeric code as its name would suggest, but an alphanumeric code used for identification of physicians in the United States by Medicare. These numbers were barred continuation in June 2007 and were followed up by the NPI number, that is, the National Provider Identifier.

The records for a physician is UPIN were updated every quarter and the rule said that each physician can have just one UPIN number and not more than that.

The CMS, that is, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is responsible to assign the UPIN number to all doctors who sign in for Medicare insurance policy. A directory with all UPIN numbers was available, for reference use from the UPIN Registry but as the service of UPIN was discontinued in June 2007, the directory became unavailable from May 23, 2008.

There are three ways to locate your UPIN number even after its discontinuation:

• One is Medicare UPIN number can be looked up from the online search tool of HME data. The basic objective of HME data is to provide billing information of a company that does any business transaction with Medicare. A physician is UPIN number can easily be located with the help of HME Data is search tool.
• ECARE has a UPIN look up and location on its website and one can easily locate their UPIN through it. The function of ECARE is to offer various tools for the billing and coding functions of doctors and healthcare companies.
• Although the HHS has been desisted but one can go to a medical library or purchase the last edition of the UPIN directory.

If you have been a practicing physician in or before 2007, your UPIN will surely be present in the directory as the PIN has been discontinued since then.