156FX1800X Optician

Definition

Opticians help fit eyeglasses and contact lenses, following prescriptions from Ophthalmologists and Optometrists. They also help customers decide which eyeglass frame or contact lenses to buy.

— NUCC Health Care Provider Taxonomy, version 26.1

Where 156FX1800X sits

• Group: Eye and Vision Services Providers — code 14 of 17 in the group
• Classification: Technician/Technologist 156F00000X
• Specialization: Optician 156FX1800X

Choose 156FX1800X over the general Technician/Technologist code (156F00000X) when the provider's training or certification is specifically in optician; the general code covers the classification as a whole. A provider may report more than one taxonomy code on an NPI but marks one as primary.

Medicare

CMS's taxonomy crosswalk links 156FX1800X to Medicare specialty 96 (Optician). That specialty — not the taxonomy code itself — is what Medicare enrollment records and uses for payment. 0 practitioners are enrolled under it nationally.

Related codes

The nearest 6 of 9 other codes under Technician/Technologist; all are on the group page.

History of 156FX1800X

NUCC's earliest recorded change to 156FX1800X is from 2023 (definition added).

• 2023-07-01 — definition added

Using 156FX1800X

The code goes in the taxonomy field of the NPI application in NPPES, and on claims where a payer asks for it — box 24J (shaded) or 33b on the CMS-1500 with the ZZ qualifier, or the PRV segment of an 837 electronic claim. Payers match it against the taxonomy on the NPI record and, for Medicare, against the specialty on the enrollment, so all three should agree. To see which code a provider uses, search their NPI in the lookup.

Sources: NUCC Health Care Provider Taxonomy code set, version 26.1 (CSV); CMS Medicare Provider and Supplier Taxonomy Crosswalk, August 2026; CMS Medicare Fee-For-Service Public Provider Enrollment, extract of 2026-09-29. Checked 2026-10-24. Methodology.