FootNotes - June 2022

What's New in AWARDS

The following new features, enhancements, and updates will be available in your AWARDS database beginning on Wednesday, June 29th. Once you’ve had a chance to try these new features out, please let us know how they work for you. We welcome your feedback!

AWARDS User Interface (UI) Refresh is Almost Here!

Next week, when you log into AWARDS on July 29th, the AWARDS UI Refresh will be live! The AWARDS UI Refresh initiative has uplifted the current design of AWARDS to a more modern look while also standardizing our back-end code to prepare for the larger AWARDS Redesign initiative. There are no workflow or functionality changes introduced as a part of the UI Refresh (other than small, quality of life improvements whenever possible.)

A new UI Refresh page has been created in the AWARDS Resource Center that outlines the purpose of this project and the changes that you will see in the system. Additionally, this Resource Center page includes several 1-2 minute teaser videos that walk you through the quality-of-life changes, such as new date pickers and enhanced table functionality, as well as a recording of the full UI Refresh Preview session held on 6/6. Finally, a section for frequently asked questions can be found at the bottom of the page that should better illustrate the impact of these changes.

Client Search - Expand Medicaid CIN Search for All Medicaid Entitlements

AWARDS now includes an optional feature that allows users to perform client searches by their Medicaid CIN - the Medicaid entitlements eligibility number. Previously, this search field would only search for entitlements eligibility with an exact name match to “Medicaid.” This Medicaid CIN field has now been expanded to search for any entitlements that have the term “Medicaid” within the entitlements eligibility name. Note: the Medicaid that matches may not be the MC CIN that shows on the search results.

E-Signatures - Allow Workers and Clients to E-Sign Without a PIN

AWARDS requires staff e-signing records to enter a saved PIN as a second level of security to ensure e-signatures are being applied by the logged-in user. Clients who have a client login and who are signing with a saved image are required to enter a saved PIN as well. With this new feature enhancement, users can now apply their saved e-signature image to records without entering in a PIN. This new configuration can be requested through the AWARDS Help Desk.

Progress Notes - Capture and Bill on Multiple Diagnosis Codes

Progress Notes and BillingBuilder have been enhanced to capture and bill multiple diagnosis codes per note. Please note that you do not need to be a BillingBuilder agency to set up your Progress Notes to capture multiple diagnosis codes. When enabled, your Progress Notes will now have two fields used to input diagnosis code values: Primary Diagnosis (re-labeled from the existing ICD-10 field) and Secondary Diagnoses (up to 11 additional diagnosis code values can be entered here). When this setting is enabled and the user attempts to generate an invoice batch, any Progress Notes that have both primary and secondary diagnosis values will display all billable diagnosis codes on both the invoice and in the 837P claim file.

Reception Desk - Out Time Not Required

The Reception Desk feature is used to maintain and review reception desk Program Attendance and Program Log Book information for day and housing programs, respectively. We have received feedback over the years requesting Program Attendance data entry records to allow records with an “In” time, but not require an “Out” time. With this workflow enhancement, we are happy to announce that AWARDS will no longer require an Out time to be entered for Reception Desk > Program Attendance data entry records.

On the Program Attendance confirmation page and Program Attendance Report, the “Hours” duration value cannot be calculated when there is no Out time and will display as blank. The “Day Total” will be recorded as “Unknown” if there are no records with Out times for the client on that day. In the case where there are records with Out times and records without Out times for the client on that day, then the Day Total will display with the known hour duration value followed by a “+” to indicate there is an unknown duration time in the day’s total. Additionally, an “Unknown” column has been added to the Program Attendance summary table which will count the total number of Day Totals that have been recorded as “Unknown”.

This change will also be reflected in the Reception Desk ReportBuilder for the “Time Out” and “Duration” type fields. When a Program Attendance record does not have an “Out” time, these fields will display as blank since the Out time is not available and the duration cannot be calculated.

ReportBuilders - No Longer Limited to Two Years of Data for Single Client Reports!

Do you run ReportBuilder reports for single clients, wanting to see their full history? Previously, the maximum date range allowed for running any ReportBuilder report was two years. This restriction has now been removed when choosing the “Select Client” option on the report settings page of client-centric ReportBuilders that runs a report for one client.

For example, a user can run a Medications ReportBuilder report for a single client to see medications from a span of more than two years. However, two years is still the limit when running the report for all clients.

A Look at What's Ahead...

Edits to Be Allowed on E-Signed Progress Notes

We are hard at work developing the functionality to allow edits to a Progress Note without removing E-Signatures that have been applied to that note. This functionality should be ready and available in Q3.

FHIR-work(s) Underway!

The Foothold Product and Engineering Team is actively working on FHIR or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource, which is the next generation of healthcare interoperability and will support countless different use cases. Federal certification criteria requires vendors to implement the R4 version of FHIR before December 31, 2022. This is a considerably large initiative but as of right now we expect to certify to the Federal certification criteria by late Q3 or early Q4. After we align with the Federally recognized R4 standard, we will begin to assess other use cases beginning with the ProviderConnect project in Santa Clara County. While we won’t have FHIR-works for July 4th, we’re extremely excited about the potential for this technology to solve interoperability challenges as it was designed to make connections more plug-and-play in nature.

Future Enhancement Release Dates

Here are the dates for the next couple of AWARDS product releases so that you can keep them on your radar:

• August 10, 2022
• September 21, 2022

All deployments (subject to change) are scheduled for the evenings prior to the dates listed here, making the new features and functionality they provide available to users bright and early on release days.

Connect With Us!

To see which training sessions and webinars are coming soon, check out the Upcoming Events in FootholdConnect (accessible from your AWARDS navigation bar). You can also see a current Upcoming Events Calendar in the Resource Center. See something you're interested in?  Register today!

The Faces of Foothold

Meghan Branca, Integrations Manager

We at Foothold talk about ourselves collectively all the time. For example, “We” are launching new AWARDS features, or “We” are working on a large-scale initiative to redesign AWARDS. But behind the “we” are some faces that we think you should know. This new section of FootNotes - The Faces of Foothold - is a place to spotlight the individuals working hard (sometimes behind the scenes) to make sure your experience of AWARDS is one that elevates the capabilities and the outcomes of the hard work you do every day.

Meet our Integrations Manager, Meghan Branca. Some of you may know Meghan from her days as an AWARDS Implementation Consultant. Perhaps she directly supported your agency when you first became a Foothold customer! For the past year, Meghan has been flourishing in her role as Integrations Manager. What does that mean for you? Meghan spends her time managing the relationships we have with our third-party integration partners. Think E-Prescribing, E-Mar, E-Labs, InSights… Click here for our full list of third-party integration partners. Meghan works with these partners on your behalf, advocating for the functionality you desire, and making sure your experience using them is seamless. You will receive emails from Meghan from time-to-time, inviting you to events to help you understand and make better use of the integrations we currently offer (Recent invites included InSights Explore & InSights Build), or she might be letting you know about new integrations that are on the horizon. Watch for those emails so you don’t miss out on valuable information!

If you ever have any questions about our existing integrations, you can email Meghan at [e-mail].

Fun Fact: If Meghan could have lunch with any famous musical artist, she’d choose Whitney Houston!

News You Can Use!

The Impact Prize is HERE! and it’s bigger and better than ever! We are expanding the 2022 Impact Prize to include both our AWARDS and FCM Customers. Tell us about the most impactful, creative, and inspirational achievements you, your program, or your agency has realized through your EHR use. We'll reward the most innovative accomplishments with a prize package! The prize package will include an item of your choice (valued at $250) and either three tickets to a future Users’ Conference or admission into a Special Track (valued at $900). Special Tracks are part of our AWARDS Certification Program and help users become experts in areas like training users or help desk tasks or BillingBuilder.

We are now accepting applications!! And the deadline to apply is July 13th. Don’t miss out and let us celebrate the great things you are doing within your EHR! To apply, or to learn more about previous winners, click here.

Tip of the Month - PlanBuilder Tips & Tricks 

As part of our recent effort to help customers transition out of the old Support Service Contacts Module and into the newer Providers Module, we thought it might be helpful to review the Authorizing Providers functionality within the Providers Module. As a reminder, we intend to sunset the legacy Support Service Contacts Module at the end of December 2022. If you haven’t made the switch yet, click here to get started, and see below to learn more about authorizing providers.

Documenting authorizing providers is something you might need to do for your billing requirements at your programs. If so, AWARDS can help! To get started, send a request to the Help Desk asking for the functionality to be enabled in your database. As part of that request, be sure to provide us with the list of labels you need for your various authorizing provider roles - for example, Authorizing MD, or Authorizing Psychiatrist.

Once we have enabled your database, you will see two changes:

• In the Providers Directory, you’ll see the Role/Type field for provider records includes the authorizing labels you requested be included in the list.

• Under Permissions Maintenance, in the Data Entry/Access set of permissions, you’ll see a new permission called “Authorizing Provider Data Entry.” While any user with access to the Providers Module (under Medical) can create and edit provider records for a client, only users with this specific permission will be able to create and edit authorizing provider records assigned to a client.

When working with Provider records for clients, users with this permission are the only staff who will see the requested specific authorizing provider roles in the Role/Type selection list. In order to add an authorizing provider to a client record, simply select the correct Role/Type:

Note: If you need to learn more about adding provider records, see the Working with Providers section in the Resource Center.

Once the authorizing provider record is saved, the confirmation page will display and include an MD Authorization Timetable link in the left-hand menu. This option allows you to set the authorization schedule for the provider. Simply click the link, which will take you to the charting timetable for the client:

From there, schedule the current MD Authorization event, set it as "Done," and schedule the next MD Authorization event.

That rounds out the process of adding an authorizing provider in AWARDS. If you would like to be able to use AWARDS for this documentation need, contact the Help Desk with your configuration requests.

We're Back! - In-Person Training has Resumed

For individual agency training sessions, we can now come to your site! Please review our in-person training guidelines, intended to keep us all safe. We continue to offer remote training sessions as always. To request either in-person or remote training, talk to your Customer Experience representative.

Follow Us on Social Media - Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook

We’re working to expand the influence of our social media, and we need your help! Please make sure to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Also, we want to celebrate all the amazing work you do, so tag us in your posts or email [e-mail] and we’ll make sure we help spread the word.

Nominate a Social Enterprise - It's Time to Vote!

Throughout the summer, we’ve been running a contest to celebrate the Social Enterprises in our communities. These organizations are doing incredible work – providing meaningful support and community engagement for underserved communities.

Our finalists have all contributed to their communities in amazing ways. Vote for the winning social enterprise by clicking here.

 

 

 

News From the Field - With Radicle Health Board Member, David Bucciferro

Over the past few years, several horrific events have shattered the core of our society. While it’s tempting to see these events and look for a single easy solution to prevent these tragedies, we need to recognize that it’s not that simple, and that these acts of violence are the result of many factors. It’s important, however, that we DO keep asking questions like “What enabled this to happen?” or “What can we do to influence change so these violent acts stop happening?” It’s these kinds of questions that will bring us closer to a world where we feel safe, where people’s needs are met, and where dark motives are extinguished.

When I ask myself those kinds of questions, I can’t help but think of two very common misconceptions. One misconception is that all people who act violently are diagnosed as mentally ill. Another misconception is that locking up everyone with a diagnosed mental illness will end the problem. But when I consider these questions and misconceptions, another deeper question rises to the surface - “What are we doing wrong that we are allowing our family members, neighbors, friends, and fellow human beings to reach a point where they feel the only way to express their pain is through violence?”

For many of us, it is hard to conceive of reaching a point where this level of violence is an acceptable response to stress. For some though, this response - taking another human’s life in an effort of self-expression or to gain self-satisfaction - feels like not only an acceptable behavior, but the only way! We must find a way to support individuals so that when they are struggling, their first thought is not to commit an unconscionable act of violence, but instead to find a supportive place, or reach out to a person who can help. This support system does not currently exist at the level necessary to support the ever-increasing behavioral health needs in our society. That system would require developed behavioral health resources that can utilize technology and advances in clinical practices to address a person’s needs holistically.

We are experiencing a shortage of available behavioral health services in nearly every community in this country - the richest and most advanced society in the world. We have not as a country prioritized behavioral wellness to a point where we invest in the resources necessary to build a behavioral health infrastructure of quality programs, technology, and awareness. Yes, there are many other things that can and should be done. Yes, there are many places where additional resources are needed to curb the frequency of these tragedies. And yes, there are societal factors like social determinants of health that must be addressed in order to aid in the fight to end these senseless acts of violence. However, if we do not build a safety net of services that are based upon current best practices, and if we do not put time into researching causes, and increasing efforts to improve information flow within the healthcare system, and if we do not invest in growing the availability of quality, non-stigmatizing behavioral health services, we will continue to live in fear of where and when the next tragedy might happen. We must realize that ALL of these things are important, and that there is not one single answer or solution.

Within the behavioral health community, we deeply understand and feel the need for more services, more and better-trained staff, and easier access to resources and programs. Last month was Mental Health Awareness Month, and as I have written before, Mental Health Awareness Month is a nice thing, but what we need is a decade of Mental Health development with a mission to create a system that truly meets the needs of its people. Please, let us not wait for more tragedies to fight for more funding and more attention to the integration of primary, behavioral, and social service care. Mental health is not the sole cause of these violent acts, but quality behavioral health services could play a significant role in minimizing them.