August 5, 2013: DHHS says, “NCTracks on Track”…Really?
After reading the following DHHS release, I was so happy and comforted to know that NCTracks is on track! Thank goodness all, or most, Medicaid providers are receiving payments now. (It’s called sarcasm, people).
(blog on my thoughts regarding today’s release to come tonight…)
Raleigh, N.C. –
NC Tracks, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) new claims system, recently completed its first month of operations, processing more than 15 million claims and paying health care providers more than $750 million during July. NCTracks, which pays state Medicaid and other claims weekly, finished its fourth payment cycle of July, compared to three payments in a typical month under the 35-year-old previous system.
Payments to North Carolina healthcare providers in July 2013 totaled $758 million under the new NCTracks system. While the system has successfully processed and paid millions of claims, DHHS and its partner, CSC, continue to address technical glitches and providers’ issues with the new claims system, as expected.
“We’ve said all along that this is not going to be a simple conversion, that it’ll take 30, 60, maybe 90 days until everyone’s comfortable with it,” said Joe Cooper, DHHS Chief Information Officer. “The good news is that after the first month, the system is working and we are doing everything we can to help providers through this transition to get paid.”
Although some providers may still be experiencing difficulties with claims or payments, others have grown to appreciate the improvement NCTracks represents over previous claims systems.
“The first week was bumpy, but we are doing well now,” said Jean Koehn, CEO of Visiting Respiratory Care of Four Oaks. “The system is great! We know immediately if we will get paid or not on a claim.”
The single biggest issue keeping providers from getting paid is taxonomy, the system of medical codes that NCTracks uses to determine whether a provider has the proper credentials to bill for the item or procedure on a claim. To assist providers with taxonomy issues, DHHS and CSC continue to hold additional training, both in-person across the state and online, as well as proactively reaching out to providers, associations and third-party billing agents to walk them through the steps necessary to successfully process claims and ultimately get paid.
“Transitioning to a new, taxonomy-based system is like getting a new cell phone which may not have the same apps or be as intuitive to use initially,” added Joe Cooper, DHHS Chief Information Officer. “We understand the importance of timely reimbursement to providers, and after one month of operations, continue to work closely with the provider community to successfully transition them to the new system.”
The second most common reason for a provider not getting paid is missing or incomplete bank account information. Last week, more than 1,100 paper checks were mailed to providers who were missing their bank account information. This week, approximately 900 providers who continue to have issues with electronic banking will be mailed paper checks.
Other provider issues are being handled as they occur, many on a one-on-one basis.
As provider issues are resolved, wait times at the NCTracks Call Center (1-800-688-6696) continue to improve. Average answer times are down to around 17 minutes, well below the lengthy hold times a few weeks ago. CSC continues to hire and train additional Call Center staff to address providers’ needs.
Posted on August 5, 2013, in Computer Sciences Corporation, Division of Medical Assistance, Health Care Providers and Services, Medicaid, Medicaid Billing, Medicaid Reimbursement, Medicaid Reimbursements, NC DHHS, NCTrack Glitches, NCTracks, NCTracks Billing Issues, North Carolina and tagged Computer Sciences Corporation, CSC, Division of Medical Assistance, DMA, Health care provider, Medicaid, Medicaid Reimbursments, NC DHHS, NC Medicaid, NCTracks, NCTracks Billing Issues, NCTracks Problems, North Carolina, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
Paraphrasing of this press release – ” We are proud to announce we have gone from awful to mediocre at best! Let’ celebrate!”
Hahaha. That made me laugh. Who wants to be great? Just being “ok” is good enough.
Hey, progress! Call wait times are down to 17 minutes! NCTracks either fixed everything, or, more likely, their CSRs are so useless, people have learned not to waste their time.
It is not the CSR that are useless. It is top management. They did not even train there people. I should know as I was a former programmer on this Medicaid project. We told them that there was tons of problems, but the Indian bosses did not want to hear us. Go figure.
Oh by the way. As a former employee. CSC does not have a Fraud system in Place.
Tom, Why did you leave CSC? Are you willing to talk about the Medicaid project?
The decision to install a system that wasn’t fully tested was ultimately made by “state employees”. Although a “risky” installation creates bad press and unhappy providers, it does save the state money. The financial savings are considered to be “worth the risk”. I was an IT employee on the NCTracks contract for 3 years. The unprofessionalism and incompetency I witnessed during that time was incredible. CSC probably spent more money on airline tickets and hotel rooms than was spent on system testing. Using inexperienced foreigners to create a complex American Medicaid health care system was a terrible mistake. It also denied badly needed jobs to American citizens. CSC employees are now scrambling 7 days a week to compensate for a lack of oversight and quality control that hadn’t existed over the past few years. I feel their pain. Especially since the most knowledgeable and experienced IT people on that contract have long since departed. Novices are left to clean up the mess.
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