How to Search the NPI Registry for Healthcare Providers (Without the Terrible NPPES Website)

If you've ever needed to look up a doctor's NPI number, verify a provider's credentials, or build a list of specialists in a given area, you've probably used the NPPES website. And you've probably noticed it's awful. The search is slow, the results are paginated one painful page at a time, there's no bulk export, and the interface looks like it hasn't been updated since 2008. Which it might not have been. The good news: there's a free public API behind it that's actually pretty decent. The bad news: the docs are scattered and the response format is... a lot. What's in the NPI Registry? Every healthcare provider in the US that bills insurance has a National Provider Identifier -- a 10-digit number assigned by CMS. The NPPES registry has over 7 million active records. For individual providers (doctors, nurses, therapists, dentists), you get: Full name and credentials (MD, DO, NP, LCSW, etc.) Primary specialty and all taxonomy codes Practice address and phone number Mailing address Licens