Upcoming Grant Application Deadlines

Seed Grant Application Deadline: June 15^th

Seed money is available for purposes or projects whose intent matches CRHC's mission: enhancing healthcare services in Colorado by providing information, education, linkages, tools & energy toward addressing rural healthcare issues. These funds are intended as "seed" money and should be only a portion of a larger project or idea. Awards are made to rural applicants who are CRHC members with a maximum award amount of $1,000. To learn more and download the application, click here.

MJJ Grant Application Deadline: June 15^th

The Marva Jean Jackson (MJJ) Rural Community Health Scholarships Program provides small grants that help pay for the training and/or education of a local healthcare provider and are available for rural facilities or community groups. CRHC will match, two-to-one, the support provided, up to $1,000 a year. For example: a long term care facility might pay for an LPN to acquire an RN license; a hospital would help pay for a Medical Assistant training to become a Lab Technician; or, a small community would support a local student in becoming a Physician Assistant. Awards are made for one year, but applicants may be awarded up to three times. The scholarship recipient must be either currently enrolled in classes or start training within three months of the application date. To learn more and download the application, click here.

Register for CMS' National Provider Call on Registration and Attestation

CMS is holding a National Provider Call on Thursday, June 7, from 1:30 – 3:00 pm ET for eligible professionals (EPs) to learn about registration and attestation for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

This is the last year EPs can earn the full Medicare incentive payment. Join the call to learn more about how to participate in the programs, including:

• The path to payment
• The registration and attestation processes
• Working with a third party proxy
• Troubleshooting registration and attestation
• Helpful resources
• Questions and answers

The presentation for this call will be posted at least one day beforehand. In addition, the presentation will be emailed to all registrants on the day of the call.

Registration Information:
In order to receive the call-in information, you must register for the call. Registration will close at 12pm on the day of the call or when available space has been filled; no exceptions will be made, so please register early. 

How to Avoid Common Version 5010 Claims Rejections

The deadline for the Version 5010 upgrade was January 1, 2012, and the enforcement discretion period for all HIPAA-covered entities to complete their upgrade to the Version 5010 electronic standards ends on June 30, 2012. The Version 5010 transaction standards have different requirements than those of Version 4010 and 4010A. There are a few things to keep in mind for processing your Version 5010 claims, which should help avoid unnecessary rejections:

1. ZIP Code: You need to include a complete 9-digit ZIP code for the billing provider and service facility location. You should work with your vendor to make sure that your system captures the full 9-digit ZIP. 
2. Billing Provider Address: You need to use a physical address for your Billing Provider Address. Version 5010 does not allow for use of a PO Box address for either professional or institutional claim formats. You can still use a PO Box, however, as your address for payments and correspondence from payers as long as you report this location as a pay-to address.
3. National Provider Identifier (NPI): You were previously allowed to report an Employer’s Identification Number (Tax ID) or Social Security Number (SSN) as a primary identifier for the billing provider. For Version 5010 claims, however, you are only allowed to report an NPI as a primary identifier.

For additional help with your Version 5010 upgrade and Medicare claims, you can contact your Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC). The MACs work closely with clearinghouses, billing vendors, and health care providers who require assistance in submitting and receiving Version 5010 compliant transactions. If you experience difficulty reaching a MAC, you should send a message describing your issue to ProviderFeedback@cms.hhs.gov with “5010 Extension” in the subject line.

The Medicare Fee-For-Service group has created a fact sheet that provides guidance to help providers troubleshoot some of the difficulties they may experience with Version 5010 claims processing and links to each of the MAC websites, including lists of the top 10 edits for Version 5010 claims.

Only 44 days left before Version 5010 Enforcement Discretion Period ends

Version 5010 Enforcement Discretion Period Ends in 44 days.
The deadline for all HIPAA-covered entities to upgrade to Version 5010 electronic standards was January 1, 2012. However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) initiated an enforcement discretion period until June 30, 2012 to give the industry additional time to complete testing. CMS made this decision based on industry feedback that many organizations and their trading partners were not yet ready to finalize system upgrades for this transition. If you have not yet finalized your Version 5010 upgrade, you should be working to complete this step as soon as possible.

Version 5010 Resources CMS is committed to helping you successfully upgrade to Version 5010 and ICD-10 by providing resources on the CMS ICD-10 website to help you understand and manage your upgrade. CMS regularly updates the CMS ICD-10 website, including a web page dedicated to Version 5010 information and resources. CMS has also posted a fact sheet, which discusses steps providers should be taking now to be compliant with the upgrade to Version 5010 by June 30, 2012.

Keep Up to Date on Version 5010 and ICD-10.
Please visit the ICD-10 website for the latest news and resources to help you prepare!

Help Ensure Your Success in the EHR Incentive Programs by Registering Early

CMS recommends that all eligible professionals (EPs) register as early as possible for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

By registering early you can verify that your information is up to date in all of the CMS systems and resolve any issues so that you can participate in the EHR Incentive Programs. If you do not resolve registration problems in time, you will not be able to attest and could potentially miss out on a payment year. Registering does not mean you are required to participate—so register today!

Register Today to Receive Maximum Incentives
This is the last year for Medicare EPs to start participating in the EHR Incentive Programs in order to receive their full Medicare incentive payments. For more information on registration in the EHR Incentive Programs, visit the Registration page of the EHR website.

EHR adoption, telemedicine feasible for Colorado's rural providers

Rural health care -- despite numerous grants from the federal government -- generally gets the short end of the health IT stick when it comes to deploying a serviceable Internet connection. It is no different in Colorado, where laying fiber is a difficult and expensive process, and satellite reception is hard to come by in the mountainous and farmland regions.

To read the entire article, click here.

HRSA Webinar: Using Health IT for Care Coordination Across Inpatient and Outpatient Settings

Friday May 18, 12:00 PM MDT

This webinar focuses on using health information technology (IT) to help coordinate care among outpatient and inpatient safety net providers.  Care coordination between these two provider settings is important for improving healthcare outcomes, increasing patient safety, reducing costs, and attaining patient centered care. Presenters, from both rural and urban safety net environments, will discuss how they have achieved patient care coordination and describe how they overcame barriers related to infrastructure/ health IT, governance issues, staff communication, patient engagement, and the sharing of patient data. This webinar is important for safety net providers as they implement health IT systems and prepare for changes in how they provide patient care for programs funded by the Affordable Care Act. 

Presenters include:

Dr. Martin Serota, MD, Chief Medical Officer

Altamed Healthcare Services, Los Angeles, California

William Reiter, MD, Internist

Community Hospital of Anaconda, Anaconda, Montana

   Staff from Missouri Primary Care Association/ St. Louis Integrated Health Network

Click here to register:

http://webcast.streamlogics.com/audience/index.asp?eventid=90847413

Free NRHA Webinar: How to Introduce and Manage Organizational Change

Date:  Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Time:  11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Mountain Time

It is not uncommon for health care organizations to struggle with creating and implementing sustainable strategies to influence behaviors and transform culture as they implement advanced health care information technology (HIT) solutions. Organizations without effective behavior change strategies may not experience their desired outcome and often experience slow adoption and poor staff and patient satisfaction.

With more than 30 years’ experience, Cerner created Leading Strategic Change, an onsite workshop for clients preparing for a full HIT implementation. Join Donna Alexander, Learning Consulting Practice Manager, for a one-hour webinar, hosted by the National Rural Health Association, presenting many of the principles incorporated in Leading Strategic Change.

           
Learn skills to help garner executive sponsorship, create a behavior change campaign in your organization, and ensure collaboration among key stakeholders.

Speaker:  Donna Alexander

Donna Alexander leads the Behavior Change Management team at Cerner Corporation. Her focus is on leading clients through the most effective behavior change and influencer models to ensure successful adoption of CPOE or HCIT solutions.  These methods may also be applied to nearly any change effort in an organization and leads to building a culture of deliberate and applied influences for success in the areas of Personal, Social, and Structural motivations and abilities.  Her team’s ultimate goal is to enable organizations and individuals to attain the results they desire through effective and systematic application of the sources of influence.

Space is limited.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

http://e2.ma/click/bnneb/3w1tp/vid3q

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

New Data Provides Info on EPs who Participated in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program in 2011

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted the 2011 Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program Eligible Professionals Public Use File (PUF) to the EHR website. This new file contains data on Eligible Professionals (EPs) who participated in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program in 2011.

The CMS 2011 Medicare EHR Incentive Program Eligible Professionals PUF provides detailed information about EPs who attested as of December 22, 2011, including each provider's type, specialty, and his/her responses to the meaningful use core and menu measures. The PUF excludes data from hospitals in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, which will be posted at a later date.

There is no 2011 data available for participants in the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, who received incentive payments in 2011 only for adopting, implementing, or upgrading to certified EHR technology.

Additional information on the PUF can be found on the Data and Reports page of the EHR website.

The 30-Day Comment Period is Now Open for the HHS Proposed Rule to Delay ICD-10

Last week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a proposed rule that would delay the compliance date for ICD-10 from October 1, 2013 to October 1, 2014. This proposed rule has now been posted to the Federal Register, which marks the beginning of the 30-day comment period, with all comments due to HHS no later than 5:00 pm ET on May 17, 2012.

HHS believes the change in the compliance date for ICD-10, as proposed in this rule, will give providers and other covered entities more time to prepare and fully test their systems to ensure a smooth and coordinated transition among all industry segments.

The 30-day comment period for this rule is an important way to provide feedback to HHS about the proposed ICD-10 compliance date change. You can submit comments in the following ways:

• Electronically by following the ‘‘Submit a comment’’ instructions on the Regulations.gov website
• By regular mail sent to:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Department of Health and Human Services
Attention: CMS–0040–P
P.O. Box 8013
Baltimore, MD 21244–8013

More information about the proposed rule can be found in the One-Year Delay of ICD-10 Compliance Date fact sheet, which outlines the background of the ICD-10 compliance date, and highlights provisions of the proposed rule and standards compliance date.