New York Customers

Administrative Services of Kansas, Inc
New York Vendor Call Minutes
March 1, 2007

Welcome:   The New York vendor call will be held the first Thursday of odd numbered months (January, March, May, July, September, November). Input is requested from the vendors on how often they wish to have the call. The call begins at 10:00 AM ET.   A representative from BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York will be present on each call.  All vendors are encouraged to sign up for the Vendor notification on the New York Customers section of the e-mail lists. 

• Vendors wishing to receive an email notification reminding them of the next conference call will need to visit the ASK Website.  Locate New York Customers on the ASK website, from the E-mail List Sign-up select Vendors.    The direct link is http://www.ask-edi.com/listserver/all_hnny_signup.htm.
• Vendor Call Minutes will be published within 10 business days of the call, to the ASK Website under New York Customers.  Occasionally, questions asked in the Vendor Call will have to be researched.  When possible, answers will be published in the Vendor Call Minutes.

General Announcements:

• Newest edition of the Just ASK newsletter will be posted mid-March.
• New EDI Enrollment forms have been posted to the ASK website.  These became mandatory on January 1, 2007.
• A signature is now required on all new setups requesting a new trading partner number. 
• Changes/updates to exiting trading partners can still be completed through the e-form.
• All requests for setup, changes or updates for the 835 transaction will require a signature. 
• Changes to contact name may be made in the following ways:
• New contact information may be emailed to askedi@ask-edi.com, if the email address contains the name of the organization.
• New contact information may be faxed to ASK on company letterhead.  Send faxes to 785-290-0720.

• We have discovered that some of the vendor information we have on file is outdated.  If accurate vendor information is not available the following could occur.
• ASK is unable to get urgent information to you either by mail or phone.
• ASK is unable to lend assistance if the vendor contact information is not correct.

The vendor directory on the ASK website is used by trading partners who are interested in locating a vendor.  Please let us know by fax (on company letterhead) if the information needs to be updated.  Current vendor contact names may be updated in the same way.  The vendor changes may be faxed to 785-290-0720.

• System Status – Change in Notification

     In the past an email notification was sent if reports were delayed or the EDI system was temporarily unavailable.  These emails were not always delivered as timely as needed.  It is now our policy to post EDI System Status information to the News section of the ASK website.  EDI System status information is also available as Option 2 on the phone system.

Telecommunication Issues:

As of July 1, 2007, the Asynchronous connection will be discontinued.   The Zmodem, Xmodem and Ymodem protocols are older technology.  If a hardware failure should occur, there is no guarantee repairs could be made.

NPI

Most of the call was spent addressing NPI related issues.  Jack Kurkowiak, Robert Lane and Jennifer Delmont of HealthNow led this portion.  Jack reminded attendees of information available to them on the ASK website, such as companion documents, NPI timelines, telecommunications documents, and links to Washington Publishing.

837 Issues

• Edit changes were implemented on 2/18 that return warnings if NPI is not reported at the billing or rendering levels.
• Edit changes to be implemented on 3/18 will begin validating the NPI against the trading partner number and the payer stub file.  These edits will be warnings until 5/23/07.
• Vendors were reminded that providers must report the NPI number(s) to HealthNow.  They would prefer a copy of the NPPES confirmation be faxed to 716-887-2056.  If there are a large number of NPI numbers to be reported an arrangement can be made with Robert Lane (716-887-8722) to pass these via a spreadsheet.
• If there is no extension to the 5/23/07 date – all warnings will become ERRORS and will reject claims if NPI is not reported or valid against trading partner or payer list.  Legacy number may continue to be submitted, but will be ignored.  Processing will be completed using the NPI. 
• If there is an extension to the 5/23/07 date – continuation of dual usage with all warnings will remain until the new implementation date or the payer determines a new date.
• Jennifer mentioned that they are seeing claims with incorrect servicing address information.  This field is different than the billing address (Professional 2310D loop, or Institutional 2010E loop). This information is important for provider identification during claims processing.
• It was noted that providers are struggling with reporting of the NPI at the Referring provider level.  Jennifer indicated that the payer needs the NPI at the Referring and Attending levels.

835 Issues

• Jack posed a question to vendors to determine the interest of testing the 835.  The consensus from those responding was they would test with one or two clients and find this sufficient.
• It was clarified by Jennifer that population of the NPI on the 835 will be driven by the payer not input on the claim.
• It was determined that another vendor call will be held on April 5.  Procedures for testing 835 will be communicated at that time.

Other Issues:

• The next system deployment is scheduled for Sunday, March 18, 2007.  

ASK wants to encourage you and your clients to share suggestions and ideas on how we can provide better assistance.  Please send an email with suggestions to askedi@ask-edi.com.

The next regularly scheduled call will be April 5 2007.   Notification will be sent via email to those who have signed up for the mail list on the New York Customers section of the ASK website:
http://www.ask-edi.com/listserver/all_hnny_signup.htm

Phone Number:  1-877-326-2337
Conference ID:  7596037

Web Addresses:
www.ask-edi.com                                      www.bcbswny.com
www.healthnowny.com                           www.bsneny.com

Email Address:                                       Phone:
askedi@ask-edi.com                                      800-472-6481

HealthNow contacts:
Jack Kurkowiak (716-887-2095)
Kurkowiak.Jack@healthnow.org

Robert Lane (716-887-8722)
Lane.Robert@healthnow.org

Jennifer Delmont (716-887-6088)
Delmont.Jennifer@healthnow.org

- Back -