A taxonomy code is a unique ten-character alphanumeric code that enables you to identify your specialty (i.e., Speech-Language Pathologist, Physical Therapist, etc.) to an insurance payer on your claims. This guide will provide instructions on how to identify your taxonomy code, as well as where that information should be entered in SimplePractice.
In this guide, we'll cover:
- Finding your taxonomy code
- Entering your taxonomy code in SimplePractice for claims
- My claim was rejected due to a missing or invalid taxonomy code in Box 24J
Finding your taxonomy code
Certain payers require that the rendering provider’s taxonomy code is listed in Box 24J of claim submissions. If a payer requires this, they’ll also require that the ZZ qualifier is listed in Box 24I.
Since the requirement for these fields varies by payer, the ZZ qualifier is a setting that gets enabled from our administrative backend. Once it’s enabled, the taxonomy code will populate all claims created for the specific payer ID that requires it.
Important: The ZZ qualifier (Box 24I) and the rendering provider’s taxonomy code (Box 24J) won’t appear on an electronic claim. However, this information is sent on the claim’s backend. If you’d like to review the information that gets sent to the payer, you can download the PDF version of the claim. Here’s what this section looks like on a downloaded claim: 
If the information appears on a downloaded claim, then it’s being sent to the payer electronically. If you’re viewing a downloaded claim and the taxonomy code and ZZ qualifier didn’t populate in Box 24, but you believe that the payer you're billing requires it, submit a help request to our team. We can then work with our clearinghouse to verify the requirement and make any necessary updates to the settings from our end.
To find your taxonomy code:
- Visit the NPPES NPI Registry
- Enter your NPI Number into the field
- Click Search
Entering your taxonomy code in SimplePractice
After you've identified the taxonomy code associated with the NPI you're using in SimplePractice, you'll want to make sure to enter that code in the following sections of your account:
- Navigate to Settings > My Profile > Clinical
- Under Clinical Information, enter the Taxonomy Code associated with your individual NPI
- Click Save Information
Our system will automatically populate the taxonomy code you enter in the above section into Box 24J for payers that require that you include it. However, because the rendering provider taxonomy code isn't required by all payers, it's not visible unless you download the claim form.
Note: If billing under your supervisor's credentials, leaving the NPI Number field blank will trigger the system to pull the taxonomy code entered in your supervisor's settings. For more information on this, see: How to bill insurance under your supervisor's credentials.
To populate your taxonomy code into Box 33:
- Navigate to Settings > Billing and Services > Insurance
- Under Billing Provider Info, enter the Taxonomy Code associated with your NPI
Note: If you're billing insurance as a group practice, see: How to switch from a solo practice to a group practice for insurance billing?
My claim was rejected due to a missing or invalid taxonomy code in Box 24J
If you receive a claim rejection for a missing or invalid taxonomy code in box 24j, you'll want to first check in the clinician's account settings to make sure that the correct taxonomy code was entered in the appropriate field.
Note: If you're part of a group practice, only an individual clinician can update their taxonomy code within the Clinical settings.
To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > My Profile > Clinical
- Enter the clinician’s NPI in the NPPES NPI Registry
- Enter the taxonomy code found in the NPPES NPI Registry
- Click Save Information
Next, you'll need to delete the existing claim and create a new claim to have the updated settings auto-populate. To do this:
- Navigate to Insurance > Claims
- Open the rejected claim
- Click the trash icon to delete the claim:
Important: Before deleting any claims from your account, we recommend downloading the claim and saving the clearinghouse reference number. Saving this information is beneficial in case issues of timely filing arise. Many of our customers choose to store downloaded claims in their client’s file. See How do I store client documents? for more information.
- Navigate to Insurance > Unbilled Appointments
- Any dates of service that were on the deleted claim will now be free to include on a new claim
- Create and submit the new claim
Tip: You can download the new claim before submitting it to confirm that the correct taxonomy code is populated into Box 24J.
If a claim was created before your taxonomy code was updated in your account settings, you'll need to recreate the claim in order for the changes to go into effect on the claim, even if it wasn't submitted.
