provider degree
prvdr_deg_cdDefinition
ISO-11179 Definition
A coded value identifying the highest academic or professional degree earned by a healthcare provider from an accredited educational institution, designating the provider educational level and professional category. Common provider degree codes include MD for Doctor of Medicine, DO for Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, NP for Nurse Practitioner with masters or doctoral preparation, PA for Physician Assistant, PharmD for Doctor of Pharmacy, DDS or DMD for dental degrees, PhD for doctoral research degrees, and MSW or LCSW for social work credentials. Provider degree drives scope of practice determinations, prescribing authority, and billing eligibility for certain service types.
Healthcare data teams use prvdr_deg_cd in provider master data to classify providers by educational level, apply correct credentialing standards by degree category, validate billing code eligibility based on provider degree and scope of practice, and produce provider workforce analytics stratified by degree type across the network.
Standard Abbreviation
prvdr_deg_cd
Category
Production DDL — DIM_PROVIDER
CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE DIM_PROVIDER (
prvdr_key INTEGER NOT NULL -- surrogate key,
prvdr_npi VARCHAR(10) -- NPI number,
prvdr_tin VARCHAR(10) -- tax ID number,
prvdr_first_nm VARCHAR(100) -- first name,
prvdr_last_nm VARCHAR(100) -- last name,
prvdr_org_nm VARCHAR(255) -- organization name,
prvdr_typ_cd VARCHAR(20) -- provider type code,
prvdr_spclty_cd VARCHAR(10) -- specialty code,
prvdr_tax VARCHAR(10) -- taxonomy code,
prvdr_state_cd CHAR(2) -- state code,
prvdr_zip_cd VARCHAR(10) -- zip code,
prvdr_ntwk_sts VARCHAR(10) -- network status,
prvdr_accpt_pt_ind CHAR(1) -- accepting patients,
prvdr_excl_ind CHAR(1) -- exclusion indicator,
load_dt TIMESTAMP_NTZ NOT NULL -- load timestamp
);
Standard Snowflake DDL for the canonical provider table. Convert to BigQuery or Databricks →
Why This Term Matters
Provider data management is one of the most operationally complex data domains in healthcare because providers move, merge, and update their credentials continuously. A data engineer who understands provider terminology can build NPI validation, credentialing, and network adequacy pipelines that keep provider directories accurate and prevent claim rejections. Stale or incorrect provider data is a leading cause of prior authorization delays and CMS compliance findings.
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