CMS Announces an NPI Contingency Period Beyond the May 23rd Deadline CMS has given providers extra time to get ready to submit NPI information on their claims, as long as they have a plan in place for how and when they will be able to do so. In response to this announcement, most health plans are doing the following: For electronic claims, they will continue to accept the legacy provider identifier along with the NPI, when you are able to send it. Unless a health plan tells you otherwise, DO NOT send just the NPI, as the claim will be rejected For paper claims, they will accept the legacy provider identifier or the NPI By May 23rd, specific information about what each health plan is doing will be posted at www.onehealthport.com. For more information, or if the health plan information is not posted, contact the health plan directly. Sharing your NPI information is an important step in the process. The Northwest NPI Service is a FREE service for health care providers in the Northwest to store their NPI information and other important numbers, and look up NPI numbers for health care providers. If your organization has not yet entered NPI information, click here and do it today. If you have entered your information, please encourage all of the provider organizations you do business with to enter their information as well to create a comprehensive directory for the region.

Two More Chances to Win an iPod Shuffle: Enter Your Regence Provider Number and add Your UPIN to the Northwest NPI Service
Already submitted your information to the Northwest NPI Service? Here are two more chances to win an iPod shuffle in the next two weeks:

First, we've added a new field to the Service where you can enter your Regence Provider Identification Number. As an added incentive to update your information, all OneHealthPort subscribers in organizations that add this information in the next two weeks will be automatically entered into a drawing for an iPod shuffle.

Second, we've solved our UPIN problem. If you tried to add your UPIN to the NPI Service and were denied access, please try again! We’ve fixed our system. Update your UPIN number today for another chance at an iPod shuffle.

List of Health Plans, Clinics and Others Using Northwest NPI Service
A growing number of large regional health plans and clinics are already participating in the Northwest NPI Service. The organizations listed below look to the NPI service for information and do not require a separate report of your NPI numbers:

• Asuris Northwest Health
• First Choice Health
• Group Health Cooperative
• LifeWise Health Plans of Washington, Oregon and Arizona
• Premera Blue Cross
• Regence BlueShield
• Proliance Surgeons
• Providence Health Services
• Puget Sound Health Alliance
• The Everett Clinic
• The Wenatchee Valley Medical Center
• University of Washington Physicians
• Washington State Medical Education and Research Fund (WSM-ERF)

Community Health Plan Available Soon via OneHealthPort
Great news! Community Health Plan will soon make its two provider portals, Adaptis Connect 3.0 and Fiserv Health (formerly known as Harrington Benefit Services) available via OneHealthPort. Whether you are searching for information on Medicaid (HO, SCHIP) or Basic Health on the Adaptis site, or for information on Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) on the Fiserv site, you will soon be able to get there from the OneHealthPort web site, with your OneHealthPort secure ID.

Adaptis Connect 3.0 will offer information and applications, including:

• Eligibility
• Claims
• Referral status
• Member information
• General information about the Adaptis Connect system

Fiserv Health will offer information and applications, including:

• Eligibility
• Claims status
• Deductible
• Out-of-Pocket
• Provider secure email

If you have any questions about the Adaptis site, please contact the Adaptis Help Desk at 206-971-7231 or 877-280-3285 or inquire by email: helpdesk@adaptisinc.com. For more information about the Fiserv site, please contact Nancy Singhrs at 425-686-1283 or Shannon Hannan at 425-686-1298.

Introducing Practice Mate—Office Ally’s FREE Practice Management System
Office Ally is now offering a FREE practice management system for practices currently submitting claims through Office Ally, or for any practice that is submitting paper claims today.

With Practice Mate's full-functionality practice management system, you can manage all your practice information—including billing and claims submission, appointment scheduling, accounting, and patient information including patient visit detail. Practice Mate is available online, from work or home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All you need is Internet connectivity. Best of all, every section of Practice Mate can be easily configured to fit the needs of your practice. Through this secure online application, practices that are currently submitting paper claims can now easily switch to electronic claims, saving time and assuring faster payment.

Not using Office Ally? If you are submitting paper claims today and do not have a billing system or practice management system in place, consider Office Ally with Office Ally’s free practice management system, Practice Mate. Both services are totally free to providers who currently submit paper claims and will save you time and speed up payments. It's easy to register for Office Ally by clicking on "Office Ally" at www.onehealthport.com. If you have questions or difficulty registering, call Office Ally customer support at 949-464-9129.

Already using Office Ally and want to sign up for Practice Mate? To register for Practice Mate, go to www.officeally.com and click on "register" and then click on "forms". Print out the "Practice Mate User Agreement" and fax a signed copy to (949) 376-6951. A member of the Office Ally support team will call you back to get your Practice Mate system set up.

Need more information? Call (949) 464-9129, or go to www.officeally.com/Demo/PracticeMateDemo.asp for an online demonstration.

The Administrative Simplification Program to Focus on Improving Provider-Patient Interactions
The Washington Healthcare Forum's Administrative Simplification program (or "Admin Simp") has recently expanded its scope to include workflow innovation and technology solutions that improve the patient-provider interaction in the provider's office. To make the most of these opportunities, Admin Simp is now being integrated with OneHealthPort—so expect to hear more about these exciting programs as they roll out!

The first project in this arena is aimed at helping providers interact with patients and their health plans to verify patient health coverage, then estimate and collect the patient's share of the bill. Determining the patient portion of health care costs is more important than ever as Health Savings Accounts and patient deductible plans drive up patients' share of their medical bills and the provider's days in A/R.

Many providers are already beginning to tackle this issue with new systems and workflow, but they often run into unexpected challenges. Admin Simp's role will be to work with providers and health plans to clarify problems that are typically encountered and, where appropriate, to help develop a standardized toolkit of products and services that will be helpful to a broad spectrum of provider organizations.

WSM-ERF Quality Improvement Project Coming Soon
The Washington State Medical Education and Research Foundation (WSM-ERF) Quality Improvement program (Quip) combines medical and pharmacy claims data from multiple payers, and focuses on a number of chronic and preventive care measures, including:

• Chronic care measures in diabetes, asthma, heart failure, coronary artery disease and depression
  
• Preventive measures for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer and required immunizations
  
• Primary care physicians included in Quip are those in the fields of Pediatrics, Family Practice, Obstetrics/ Gynecology and Internal Medicine.

Secure Reports—Quip reports are customized, with each physician having exclusive access to reports about his or her own performance, and information about his or her own patients. Reports are updated quarterly.

Easy-to-Use Registries—With Quip's easy-to-use populated registries, physicians can track the chronic and preventive care needed for each of their patients. If your practice is not currently using other registries, you can use Quip—with no need to populate and maintain any additional registries. If you already have your own registry, information from Quip can be easily downloaded to your existing registries.

Protecting Sensitive Information—In creating reports, Quip applies HIPAA-compliant data security techniques to protect sensitive data, and we use proven patient assignation methodologies to ensure that the right physicians or health care providers get access to patient information. OneHealthPort's secure ID makes it easy for physicians to securely access Quip reports through an online health care portal created just for local health care content.

The Quip report pre-registration process will begin in soon. Stay tuned for pre-registration information.

Premera Blue Cross Portal Offers Improved Online Functionality
Premera's secure provider portal has been updated for better functionality and design. Users will appreciate the re-designed screen display of eligibility dates, diagnosis codes and descriptions.

The updated site features faster direct links to eligibility, benefits, and claims information as well as improved access to BlueExchange. All these new features add up to big user benefits- more detailed claims information and seamless navigation. To view these exciting updates, go to www.premera.com.

Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska Portal Offers Improved Online Functionality
Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska's secure provider portal has been updated for better functionality and design. Users will appreciate re-designed screen display of eligibility dates, diagnosis codes and descriptions.

The updated site features faster direct links to eligibility, benefits, and claims information as well as improved access to BlueExchange. All these new features add up to big user benefits- more detailed claims information and seamless navigation. To view these exciting updates, go to
www.premera.com.

LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon Offers Improved Online Functionality
LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon's secure provider portal has been updated for better functionality and design. Users will appreciate re-designed Web screen display of eligibility dates, diagnosis codes and descriptions.

The updated site features faster direct links to eligibility, benefits, and claims information. All these new features add up to more detailed claims information and seamless navigation. Check it out at www.lifewiseor.com.

LifeWise Health Plan of Arizona Offers Improved Online Functionality
LifeWise Health Plan of Arizona's secure provider portal has been updated for better functionality and design. Users will appreciate the re-designed Web screen display of eligibility dates, diagnosis codes and descriptions.

The updated site features faster direct links to eligibility, benefits, and claims information. All these new features add up to more detailed claims information and seamless navigation. Check it out at www.lifewiseaz.com.