Update to Change Healthcare Outage

  There is no major news regarding when Change Healthcare will be back online.  However, TherapyNotes did post some information yesterday...and a lot of this information applies to all of our clients, not just TherapyNotes users which I will paste at the bottom of this notice.

  Essentially for TherapyNotes users Change Healthcare may come online sooner than for our non-TherapyNotes users where we submit claims and receive ERAs via the Revenue Performance Advisor Portal.  HOWEVER, BECAUSE CHANGE IS FOCUSING NOW ON E-PRESCRIBING AND IMAGING, I DO NOT EXPECT CHANGE HEALTHCARE TO BE ACTIVE AGAIN WITH THERAPYNOTES FOR POSSIBLY A MONTH AND THUS FOR OUR NON-THERAPYNOTES USERS I DO NOT EXPECT REVENUE PERFORMANCE ADVISOR TO BE AVAILABLE FOR CLAIM SUBMISSIONS AND ERAS FOR MORE THAN A MONTH!

  Remember, unless you are enrolled for our Availity submission option, NO CLAIMS ARE BEING SUBMITTED.   For TherapyNotes users, your claims are being submitted to TherapyNotes but held in a queue by TherapyNotes.  For our non-TherapyNotes users, we are entering all submitted charges in our Medisoft software and can submit once Change Healthcare is online again with the Revenue Performance Advisor Portal.

  Remember, you do have the option for us to temporarily submit via the Availity clearinghouse.  Note that enrollment with some payers (such as Medicare and some BC BS plans) may be required.  If you want to enroll, complete the form at www.mbpros.com/availity.

  If you have any questions about the above or about the below TherapyNotes notice, please send me an email.

"Update 2/27 at 5:00 PM ET

Change Healthcare provided additional information on a conference call today. Highlights included:

• Change Healthcare e-prescribe systems have been rebuilt and are in testing.  While TherapyNotes does not use Change Healthcare for e-prescribing, some providers may have experienced issues with pharmacies receiving prescriptions or difficulties with EPCS services related to the Change Healthcare outage.  Those providers can expect a return to normal in the next few days. 

• Claims, status updates, ERAs, and eligibility checks continue to be non-functional.  Change is prioritizing those who must use their tools, such as TherapyNotes customers, as part of their recovery.  They recognize that it is not easy to find alternatives for claims, and some payers can only receive claims through Change Healthcare. They are working hard to restore those services as soon as possible, but did not provide a timeline for when that may be.

• Optum is establishing a short-term bridge payment system for providers.  Providers will be able to go to a website to enroll and verify eligibility for the program.  You will be required to have an OptumPay account.  Funding will be provided weekly to eligible providers based on claims history.  Change has indicated that payments will be issued for the duration of the interruption, and that they expect payments will need to be repaid after claims resume normal operations.  Additional information about the program will be provided at some point on Friday, 3/1.

• TherapyNotes is exploring various alternative solutions, including discussions with other clearinghouses and the ability to manually download claim data files. We will provide more details when we have information to share.

• If you submit any claims outside of TherapyNotes that you previously attempted to submit through TherapyNotes, please update the appointment status to "Submitted Externally"."

Thanks,
Steve