From the Desk of Chris Meffe

Dear Channel Partners,
I hope everything is going well for you and your business in 2013. It is poised to be a pivotal year in the healthcare industry, where we will face a barrage of upcoming changes, challenges and opportunities. We know you expect Emdeon to leverage our industry leadership to help you succeed. To do that most effectively we need to be in tune with your needs and the needs of your providers. That is why we launched an initiative last year to deepen our direct interactions with you.

One method we use to stay in tune with you is our client experience research. Twice yearly, we conduct surveys not simply to gauge how we are doing but also to gather critical data to help guide our decisions and courses of action regarding the services and solutions we offer. We take your responses to these surveys so seriously that we provide incentives to our employees based on your responses. In other words, your voice matters.

The results of the Q2 and Q4 2012 survey indicate that our initiative to get closer to our clients has been successful. Most survey participants reported that they are satisfied or very satisfied with Emdeon and eight out of ten respondents said they would recommend us! We are encouraged by those responses, but we will continue to strive for a high level of satisfaction amongst all of our customers. So much so, that they will have no hesitation in recommending us. So we will continue with our hard work to launch solutions tailored specifically to meet your needs and the needs of your providers. From automated lab certifications and all-payer EDI enrollment services, to eDelivery of patient statements and online patient payments, we are developing solutions designed to help you succeed.

Will you be at HIMSS in March? If so, the show is one more place for your voice to be heard and for you to get the firsthand scoop on those solutions we're working on. In order to schedule an appointment with us at Booth 5027, please fill out the Contact Us Form. It would be an honor to shake your hand and get to know you a little better.

Of course, you don’t have to wait for a tradeshow to be in touch with us. Contact us whenever you have questions or suggestions. We are here and glad to help anytime.

Thanks, as always, for being our partner!

Chris Meffe
Senior VP of Emdeon’s Strategic Partner Group

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Chris Meffe is Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships for Emdeon, overseeing strategy, operations, service, support and sales for channel partner customers. Meffe has been with Emdeon since 2000 when he joined as Vice President of Operations for the company. He is a graduate of Elon University with a BA in Economics.

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Simple Math at HIMSS Booth 5027!

You + Emdeon Universal Exchange = CONNECTED

Plug-in to the Emdeon Universal Exchange - the single largest clinical, financial and administrative information network in the nation to help improve your business and clinical outcomes.
Our network moves information between physicians, hospitals, labs, pharmacies and payers through interoperable connectivity to their systems. In fact, we processed nearly 7 Billion health information exchanges in 2012 helping our customers drive key initiatives like care collaboration, Meaningful Use compliance, accountable care and pay for performance. Swing by Booth 5027 and let us show you how to get CONNECTED.

Emdeon is hosting 4 in-booth speaking sessions at HIMSS13! We'll also be giving away 2 iPad minis® at each session.

Check it out:

• Epic Orders Through Emdeon: Removing the Barriers to Clean Electronic Orders
  Monday March 4th, 3:00PM - 3:30PM Eric Reynolds, Vice President, Sales and Strategy, Emdeon


• The Future of Coding is NOW: Maximizing Coding Efficiency and Accuracy Using Big Data and Analytic
  Tuesday March 5th, 11:00AM - 11:30AM Manjula Iyer, Director of Product Management, Atigeo


• Breaking the Cycle: How Big Data and Real-Time Analytics Can Help You Intelligently Manage Readmissions
  Tuesday March 5th, 3:00PM - 3:30PM Gene Boerger, Vice President, Product Innovation, Emdeon


• Interoperability: The Key to ePrescribing Success
  Wednesday, March 6th, 11:00AM - 11:30AM
  Lathe Bigler, Sr. Director, Clinical Services, Emdeon

See you at HIMSS!
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Meaningful Use Certification: Advanced Planning Can Boost Certification Rates

By Michele Judge

Meaningful Use (MU) has made - and continues to make - a significant impact upon healthcare IT. It has provided opportunity for software vendors providing electronic health records (EHR) to showcase their technical expertise with leading-edge EHR software that can help healthcare providers deliver higher quality care but, while doing so, also qualify for significant financial incentives. But as most in the industry are aware, delivering MU-compliant software is no slam dunk. Having software certified for MU requires careful attention to detail, adherence to strict timelines and the flexibility to make quick alterations to platforms.

As MU Stage 2 enters the spotlight in 2013, EHR vendors must develop a solid plan to ensure they are able to complete the process with as few interruptions to the healthcare provider as possible. Here are several planning tips that EHR vendors should heed when progressing toward MU certification:

1. Develop a reasonable timeline. Studies show that many EHR vendors that failed in their first attempt to certify their product for Stage 1 MU did not adequately plan for the testing rigors that would ensure their EHR was capable of meeting the requirements. EHR vendors must develop a thorough - yet reasonable - timeline to increase their preparedness for certification. Fortunately, meeting Stage 2 requirements should prove easier for niche EHR vendors who only need to comply with EHR functionalities relevant to the specific practice area of their healthcare provider customers. This is a departure from Stage 1 requirements when EHR vendors needed to ensure their electronic health records met all MU standards, regardless of whether or not they applied to their specialty.
2. Pay close attention to reporting functionality. Among the most difficult of EHR capabilities to master in Stage 1 were clinical quality measures (CQMs) and other reporting functionalities. Healthcare providers were faced with meeting a great number of complex, and sometimes ambiguous, requirements. This activity will only become more challenging as CQM becomes a core objective with greater requirements for providers. Therefore, EHR vendors must devote significant time and energy into building a solid reporting feature or risk not meeting the certification requirements.
3. Conduct various dry runs. Perhaps the most significant reason EHR vendors may fail to meet a certification test is that they are falsely assured that their solutions are fully capable, when in fact even a small glitch can impact the entire assessment. In addition to problems anticipated with CQM reporting, EHR vendors should anticipate challenges associated with certification to process lab orders. EHR vendors must take advantage of test scripts that have been prepared and published in advance by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). As companies formulate their plan, they will review those test scripts to ensure they are including the appropriate functionalities in their system.
4. Carefully evaluate Authorized Certification Testing Bodies (ATCBs). All certification bodies are not created equal. EHR vendors can select from several organizations for Stage 2 MU testing, which will help prevent the backlog issues that arose during Stage 1. But it could also complicate the evaluation process. A MU certification plan should include criteria for evaluating ATCBs, screening them for such factors as how much support they will offer and whether or not they have the appropriate capacity to handle a large EHR vendor load.
5. Consider a third-party partner. Having intimate knowledge of what it takes to be certified, many firms, including Emdeon, are emerging as MU experts helping EHR vendors navigate the complex web of criteria. EHR vendors should consider bringing on an independent partner that can objectively evaluate EHR technology, looking for red flags that might derail a certification test.

For more information on partnering with Emdeon in preparation for meeting the requirement of Meaningful Use Stage 2, please contact us.

Michele Judge is Senior Director of Clinical Services at Emdeon. She has over 20 years of experience in managing, deploying and developing computerized physician order entry solutions for laboratories, hospitals and pharmacies.
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Emdeon Awarded Exclusive Health and Human Services Contract to Define Process for Electronic Healthcare Transaction Standards

Project to test HIPAA and ACA electronic transaction standards to identify and correct technical issues prior to adoption by HHS

We are proud to announce that Emdeon has recently been awarded a contract to define the processes and tools needed to move electronic healthcare transaction standards to a new version. Under the contract, Emdeon will develop and execute an analytical methodology for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to estimate the industry impact of moving to a new version of electronic transaction standards. The recommended process will be submitted prior to the standards development organization proposing adoption by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.

The purpose of the project is to define the activities when new HIPAA and ACA transaction standards are adopted to avoid the implementation issues that have been associated with revised transaction standards in the recent past. According to CMS, the intent of the project is to greatly reduce the likelihood of technical issues going undetected until after the standards are adopted and to eliminate the negative impacts such technical issues would have on the healthcare industry. Under the terms of the agreement, Emdeon will analyze the functionality, usability, interoperability and business usage of a sample of draft versions of HIPAA standards for the following healthcare transactions: claims, claim status, claim payment/remittance advice, eligibility and referral authorizations, as well as any new standard that HHS may consider for adoption during the term of the project.

"We are pleased to work with HHS on such a high-visibility project and lend our industry experience to help avoid costly implementation interruptions that could potentially save the healthcare industry millions of dollars," said Debbi Meisner, vice president of regulatory strategy for Emdeon. "As the single largest clinical, financial and administrative health information exchange in the U.S. healthcare system, Emdeon's extensive experience will enable us to identify and correct potential technical issues during all phases of the transition to a new version of the transaction standards."

For more information on this and other important industry news, check out the Emdeon Newsroom at http://emdeon.mediaroom.com/.


HIPAA Simplified

Our HIPAA Simplified website, www.hipaasimplified.com, remains the primary resource for information regarding the operating rules and other HIPAA and ACA regulations.

HIPAA Simplified is updated regularly, so check back often!





 
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Emdeon Vision for Claims Management - New and upcoming features for channel partners

Next/Previous functionality on searches within reports:

Previously, when a user searched on a specific text within any report, it highlighted all matches in yellow, but did not take you to display where this text was. The Next/Previous functionality will now allow vendors to select a forward arrow to jump through each match quickly (as well as jump backwards in order).

File Rejected Message in File Summary: When the file ID was selected on a rejected file from the summary screen, it displayed an empty claim summary page in the previous functionality. With this enhancement, Emdeon Vision will now display with file level rejection info in it.

Additional claim attributes navigation between error messages: Previously "Additional Claim Attributes" from the dynamic claim detail pop out window would only bring up the most recent errors that a claim had. This new feature will show you if there are multiple error codes allowing you to choose which one you want to look at via a drop down menu of error codes.

 

 











Take advantage of the Emdeon Vision for Claims Management training videos: Channel partner training videos along with the provider videos can be viewed via Emdeon ON24/7 from the video Library under the references menu while provider training videos for Emdeon Vision for Claims Management can be viewed via Emdeon Vision in the Education Center. We have also added some new updated training videos for channel partners and providers that touch upon the newer features added in 2012.

New videos available now!
Provider Dashboard
Preferences
Claim detail and claim summary

Provider Training Videos
Claim Summary and Claim Detail





 


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New Payer Transactions Added Recently

Claims
Associated Benefits, Payer ID: 50266Associated Benefits, Payer ID: 50266
Benefit Plan Administrators Co. (Eau Claire WI), Payer ID: 39081
First Choice Health Administrators, Payer ID: 91131
First Choice Health Network, Payer ID: 91131&gt
First Service Administrator's Inc Lakeland Florida, Payer ID: 59276
Hometown Health Providers, Payer ID: 88537
Indiana ProHealth Network, Payer ID: 35161;
Neighborhood Health Partnership (NHP), Payer ID: 96107
PHYSICIAN'S ACCOUNTABLE CARE ORG, Payer ID: 28943;
SHERMAN HOSPITAL, Payer ID: SC359
Sound Health (now known as First Choice Health Network), Payer ID: 91131
Soundpath Health, Payer ID: 42172
TRIPLEFIN LLC, Payer ID: 64300
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, Payer ID: 25175
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan (KanCare), Payer ID: 96385
21st Century Insurance, Payer ID: 41556
22125 Roscoe Corp, Payer ID: 41556
AAA Northern California Nevada & Utah Insurance Exchange, Payer ID: 41556
City of Imperial Beach (Voucher), Payer ID: 41556
City of Vista, Payer ID: 41556
Coast Converters, Payer ID: 41556
Collin County, Payer ID: 41556
Colorado Contractors Program, Payer ID: 41556
Colorado HealthCare Assoc. - Safety National Casualty Corp., Payer ID: 41556
Colorado Prime Corp, Payer ID: 41556
Columbine Health Systems, Payer ID: 41556
County Of Marin, Payer ID: 41556
Courtyard Health C., Payer ID: 41556
Cox Construction Co, Payer ID: 41556
DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Payer ID: 41556
Dallas County Community College District, Payer ID: 41556
ELC Electric Inc, Payer ID: 41556
Eplica Inc., Payer ID: 41556
Erickson-Hall Constr, Payer ID: 41556
F&G Guaranty Ins Co/Main Street Program Colorado, Payer ID: 41556
Family Health & Housing, Payer ID: 41556
Federated Linen & Uniform, Payer ID: 41556
Hayhoe Construction, Payer ID: 41556
Imperial Irrigation District, Payer ID: 41556
Inconen Corporation, Payer ID: 41556
Inland Valley Hospice, Payer ID: 41556
J.H. Mccormack Const, Payer ID: 41556
JD Mechanical, Payer ID: 41556
Jefferson County Texas, Payer ID: 41556
John Muir Health, Payer ID: 41556
Judson ISD, Payer ID: 41556
KTA Construction (COSD2), Payer ID: 41556
Kautz Vinyards, Payer ID: 41556
King Pak Potato Company LLC, Payer ID: 41556
King Ranch, Payer ID: 41556
Lamar Consolidated ISD, Payer ID: 41556
Livingston ISD, Payer ID: 41556
Lk Arrowhead Co Club, Payer ID: 41556
Lodi Memorial Hospital, Payer ID: 41556
MDSI Phys Group INC, Payer ID: 41556
Maricopa County Community College District, Payer ID: 41556
Mariposa County, Payer ID: 41556
Matagorda County, Payer ID: 41556
Mexicana Airlines, Payer ID: 41556
Michael Hogan Assoc, Payer ID: 41556
Mission Aviation Fellowship, Payer ID: 41556
Mission Lodge Sanitarium, Payer ID: 41556
Missoula Cart Co In, Payer ID: 41556
Modesto Irrigation District, Payer ID: 41556
Motion Picture & Television Fund, Payer ID: 41556
National Jewish Health, Payer ID: 41556
Nova Metals Advantage Plus Program - WC, Payer ID: 41556
Nuevo Engineering, Payer ID: 41556
Outrigger Lodging, Payer ID: 41556
Overhill Farms Inc, Payer ID: 41556
Pacific Hydrotech Co, Payer ID: 41556
Pacific Lumber Company (Marathon), Payer ID: 41556
Pacific Specialty Insurance, Payer ID: 41556
Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association Insurance Company, Payer ID: 41556
Petaluma Valley Hospital, Payer ID: 41556
Rehab Center of Beverly Hills, Payer ID: 41556
Restoration Prof, Payer ID: 41556
Rick Concrete Const., Payer ID: 41556
Robstown ISD, Payer ID: 41556
Rural Special District Insurance Program, Payer ID: 41556
SKB Corporation, Payer ID: 41556
Salt Lake City Corporation, Payer ID: 41556
Sam Kane Beef Processors Inc., Payer ID: 41556
San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine, Payer ID: 41556
San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, Payer ID: 41556
Seeno Homes, Payer ID: 41556
Sela Health Care, Payer ID: 41556
Selman Breitman, Payer ID: 41556
Sharyland Independent School District, Payer ID: 41556
Sierra Nevada Memorial, Payer ID: 41556
Silberberger Engn, Payer ID: 41556
Sonoma Valley Healthcare District, Payer ID: 41556
St. Rose Hospital, Payer ID: 41556
TD Tile, Payer ID: 41556
Thomas Staffing Services Inc/Venturi Staffing, Payer ID: 41556
Tricity Uniform, Payer ID: 41556
Tucson Unified School Dist WC, Payer ID: 41556
US Mobile Wireless, Payer ID: 41556
Valley Health System, Payer ID: 41556
Valley Memorial Hospital, Payer ID: 41556
W Co Radiology Cntr, Payer ID: 41556
Willamette View, Payer ID: 41556
Wilmer-Hutchins ISD/Dallas ISD, Payer ID: 41556
Woodland Park West, Payer ID: 41556
YMCA, Payer ID: 41556

Eligibility Inquiry and Response
CHC Texas, Payer ID: 453
CHC Texas, Payer ID: COVTY00453
Cenpatico Behavioral Health - Indiana, Payer ID: CBHIN
CoventryCares of Maryland, Payer ID: 177
CoventryCares of Maryland, Payer ID: COVTY00177
CoventryCares of Michigan, Payer ID: 413
CoventryCares of Michigan, Payer ID: COVTY00413
CoventryCares of Virginia, Payer ID: COVTY00190
CoventryCares of West Virginia, Payer ID: COVTY00182
CvtyNatnlAccts/UofMO/CvtyOne, Payer ID: 250
CvtyNatnlAccts/UofMO/CvtyOne, Payer ID: COVON
CvtyNatnlAccts/UofMO/CvtyOne, Payer ID: COVTY00250
CvtyNatnlAccts/UofMO/CvtyOne, Payer ID: COVTYCOVON
Health America of PA, Payer ID: COVTY00148
MAIL HANDLERS & FEHBP, Payer ID: 251
MAIL HANDLERS & FEHBP, Payer ID: COVTY00251
Managed Health Services Indiana, Payer ID: CMHIN
Meritain Health, Payer ID: MTAIN
Molina Healthcare of Illinois, Payer ID: MLNIL
Molina Healthcare of New Mexico, Payer ID: 71
Molina Healthcare of New Mexico, Payer ID: MLNNM
Mutual Health Services, Payer ID: ANTAR
Sun Flower State Health Plan, Payer ID: SUNHP
Viva Health, Payer ID: VIVA
BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont, Payer ID: BCVTC

Claim Satus Inquiry And Response:
HealthSmart Benefit Solutions, Payer ID: HSBS
Molina Healthcare of Illinois, Payer ID: MLNIL
Molina Healthcare of New Mexico, Payer ID: 71
Viva Health, Payer ID: VIVA
BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont, Payer ID: BCVTC


For all payers, visit https://access.emdeon.com/PayerLists/





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