Dec 02, 2024
New York State
Department of Health
New York Early Intervention System (NYEIS) Electronic Mailing List
State of the EI-Hub Week of November 25th
Dear Colleagues,
As always, I want to start my weekly EI-Hub update by
saying thank you to our Early Intervention Program (EIP) community. I am always
grateful for the excellence, dedication, and compassion you bring to your work
with the children and families we serve.
Planned System Updates
On November 21-22, 2024, Public Consulting Group (PCG) installed several updates to the EI-Hub. New features were added, system enhancements were made, and several user reported issues were successfully resolved. Key updates in
these system releases included:
- Case Management: Hardware upgrade to improve system performance (speed).
- Case Management: The Service Detail panel did not show to the total for Total Makeups Authorized and Total Co-Visits Authorized in some cases. This has been updated to show these totals. Co-Visit and/or Makeup visit claims which were denied because this total field was empty may now be resubmitted.
- User Role Update: Expanded editing permissions for the MuniProgAllNY user role.
- Enhancement of IFSP Copy Functionality: Users can now copy a closed IFSP for up to 60-days from the closed date.
- Migrated SAs with incorrect end dates: The fix amended the start and end dates to the proper dates and reopened improperly end-dated SAs.
For an overview of all items implemented in this update, please reference the release notes on the Landing Page and on the Learning Management System (LMS). We hope
these updates improve your workflow in the system.
System Performance
I am pleased to share with you that from a technical
perspective, Public Consulting Group (PCG) is seeing marked improvements in
system performance. Many average response times have been reduced by +33%. PCG
is also in the process of implementing a server upgrade to further achieve
system performance improvements. This upgrade will take place over the upcoming
weekend on Saturday, November 30th beginning at 10 PM and it is anticipated to be completed on Sunday December 1st by 7 PM, to reduce system downtime for users during the business week. We know the counties and providers have been working in the system during weekend hours; however, this change requires a longer than usual system downtime. We anticipate that these system performance updates will positively improve your ability to move children through the system and to bill for services rendered.
Communications and Engagement
Our first PCG NY EI-Hub Stakeholder Group meeting was
held on November 20th and focused on four key areas: provider payments and managing claim rejections, system slowness, data migration, and customer service and training. The group discussed how each issue has impacted their workflow, identified aspects of the system that were intuitive or confusing, and offered suggestions for overall improvement of system usability. Meeting notes and outcomes are included in here for all EIP stakeholders to see. In addition, as the group continues to meet, their system recommendations to BEI and PCG will also be shared with stakeholders.
In addition to reviewing the EI-Hub Stakeholder Group
feedback, PCG reviewed DOH, county, and provider feedback on priorities for
data migration and other issues and has produced a prioritized list titled “EI-Hub
Work Items and Release Notes”. This list is available on the EI-Hub landing
page now. This list will provide transparency to the work items that are being
planned by PCG and BEI and potential dates for system implementation.
Call Center
PCG has shared recent metrics with BEI on call wait
times for customer service and has reported significant improvements. PCG has
increased the call center to 16 full-time employees (including two supervisors)
and is actively recruiting more staff. This has greatly reduced call wait times
(i.e., Monday 11/18 and Monday 11/25 had very similar call volumes, but average
wait time fell from about 1.5 hours to about 6 minutes). We anticipate
continued improvement, as additional Call Center staff are hired and trained.
Provider Payments
We are paying close attention to our “claims rejected”
rates, which are much higher than expected (above 40%). In reviewing the root
causes, we have determined that the top rejection reason can be temporarily
lifted, to ensure that claims can flow through the system. On Monday, we
removed an edit and notified all impacted providers that they can rebill. In
addition, we would like to share with you the top reasons why claims get
rejected and how to avoid your claims from being rejected:
- Top #1 rejection reason (about a third of all rejections): 454 Rejection, this is the edit that was just removed. It's related to Qualified Provider type not matching the procedure (CPT) code.
- Top #2 rejection reason (about a third of all rejections): F16 Rejection, referring provider NPI on the claim does not match the NPI in the case management system. This is largely due to scripts created with missing information, instead of updating existing scripts with the needed information. We are working on revising the communication that went out to providers about how to better edit scripts and select the right one for billing. We anticipate that the updated communication will assist providers in understanding how to enter information into the Hub to avoid rejections. We are also looking at if a system change could help populate some of the missing information and delete duplicates, which could facilitate billing.
- Top #3 & #4 rejection reasons (combined, about a quarter of all rejections): F22 & F24 Rejections, these are caused by Therapist NPI mismatches, such as when an organizational NPI is submitted as the rendering provider which must be an individual NPI, or when a provider has a duplicate record. We are working on revising the communication that went out to providers about how to enter NPIs. We anticipate that the updated communication will assist providers in better understanding how to enter NPI information into the Hub to avoid rejections.
In closing, BEI and PCG will continue to collaborate
to make system improvements based on your feedback. Thank you in advance for
your willingness to partner with us.
Sincerely,
Raymond L. Pierce
Director, Bureau of Early Intervention
Please do not reply to this e-mail announcement.
Thank You.
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