NYU Kimmel Center, New York City
Thursday, July 11, 2019
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Eastern

Our 12th annual User’s Conference will build on last year's back to school theme with a focus on the ever-changing landscape of care. Attendees will deepen their knowledge of AWARDS and walk away with the tools to strengthen their agency. By becoming a better AWARDS user, you will understand how to use and leverage your data to operate more efficiently, increase partnerships and develop metrics to support growth.

This year sees the return of our virtual conference experience. In an effort to make the User's Conference as accessible to you as possible, the virtual conference is a way for you to attend sessions without leaving the comfort and convenience of your desk.

Electronic Visit Verification Update

Per the 21st Century CURES Act, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) will be required for certain populations and services beginning in 2020. The EVV requirements state that the following data must be tracked for each applicable service:

  Type of service performed

  Individual receiving the service

  Date of the service

  Location of service delivery

  Individual providing the service

  Time the service begins and ends

While much of this is already available using the AWARDS Progress Notes feature, there are third party vendors who specialize in the geo tracking and offline capability needs that makes EVV a smoother process. We have researched many vendors and will begin partnering with one this summer to build a solution in AWARDS for your EVV tracking needs. We intend to release an EVV tool in fall 2019. If you anticipate needing this feature in AWARDS, please reach out to your Foothold Customer Success Division representative so we can put you on our EVV communication list.

E-Signatures Configuration - Coming Soon to the Monthly Checklist Feature

We are very excited to announce that later this summer, we will be offering the new E-Signatures Configurations functionality for the Monthly Checklist feature located within the Services - Individual module. This feature is in use by programs serving individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, and may have a customized label, but it is used by all to track daily, weekly and monthly progress towards service plan goals and outcomes. New E-Signatures Configurations will work as follows in the Monthly Checklist feature:

  Administration > Builders and Tools > E-Signatures Configurations - There will be a new Monthly Checklist option. This feature will allow users to configure a signature set per program type(s) as needed, which will be applied to the Monthly Checklist. All features available in new Progress Notes and PlanBuilder E-Signatures will be available here as well.

  Charts > Services - Individual > Res Hab Daily Checklist (or configured label) > Monthly view in Data Entry Mode - When e-signatures are configured, the bottom of the screen will display the configured signature lines. E-signatures here will work as they do with the new E-Signatures Configuration for Progress Notes and Plans and Reviews, including all reporting and messaging options. If no e-signatures are configured, this feature will continue to work as it does today.

  Charts > Services - Individual > Res Hab Daily Checklist (or configured label) > Monthly view in Reports Mode - This will remain as is and will be unaffected by the new E-Signatures Configurations feature. Users will still be able to print out and manually sign this record as it looks today.

  Charts > Outcomes > Daily Checklist Monthly Summary - This option will be removed from the Outcomes menu with the deployment of the E-Signatures Configurations feature. All information available in this view is available in the Monthly Data Entry view under the Services-Individual module.

Household Composition Changes

We are excited to announce pending changes to the AWARDS household functionality. These changes will give users more flexibility in how they enroll household members into programs.  With the introduction of a "global household," users will be able to select members of a household to enroll into different programs and will be able to assign a different head of household per program enrollment. This will better accommodate households where not all of the household members receive services in the same programs or where the head of household may differ between programs. This project is slated for later this year. Stay tuned to future FootNotes for more information.

New York State OPWDD Care Coordination Update - Medisked

As we have done in previous months, we are continuing to make available a new set of useful features and functions to users of AWARDS. As always, this round of upgrades is provided free of charge to all AWARDS users and is described below. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the Help Desk. We hope these enhancements improve the way you use AWARDS and provide services!

Deployment Date:  6/5/19

Allergies - New RxNorm User Interface

RxNorm is a code set that uniquely identifies medications. This month's deployment brings to the Allergies module the new RxNorm user interface that was previously deployed in the Medications module. The RxNorm field conditionally displays when one of the following allergy types is selected: "Drug Allergy," "Drug Intolerance," or "Propensity to Adverse Reactions to Drug." The field will automatically query the RxNav database for an RxNorm code and select the best match. A link to the RxNav medication search tool appears next to the field name, which opens the national RxNav database to allow users to search for a more specific RxNorm code if desired.

BillingBuilder - Procedure Unit Calculations Based on Progress Notes Mileage Field

When a procedure is invoiced from progress notes using the new Mileage field (detailed below), service/invoice units can be calculated based on miles captured using this field and not the progress notes Duration field. With this addition, modifications have been made to the Service Units of Measure setting on the second screen of configuring a procedure; specifically, a new Calculate Units Using drop-down option has been added which contains the following settings:

  1 Unit Per Procedure - Selected by default. When selected, the procedure will always invoice one unit of service.

  Duration - When selected, the procedure calculates service units based on the duration of the service(s) using the same rounding options previously offered.

  Mileage - When selected, the procedure calculates service units based on miles entered within the progress notes Mileage field using the rounding options Apply Rounding Down, Apply Rounding Up, Apply Rounding Natural, and Count ___ Remaining Miles as Whole Units of Measure.

BillingBuilder - Void/Adjust Invoice Authorization Units

When posting a manual Void or Adjust Invoice to A/R that is connected to a consumer's authorization record, the authorization records Total Invoiced figure now automatically recalculates as follows:

  Void Invoice - The units entered in the Svc Units column will be deducted from the Total Invoiced amount. This allows those units be to be invoiced again if needed.

  Adjust Invoice - If the adjust invoice units entered in the Svc Units column are less than what was invoiced on the original paid invoice, the difference between the original paid invoice units and the adjust invoice units will be deducted from the Total Invoiced amount. This allows those units be to be invoiced again if needed. If the adjust invoice units entered in the Svc Units column are more than what was invoiced on the original paid invoice, the difference between the original paid invoice units and the adjust invoice units will be added to the Total Invoiced amount.

HMIS - PATH ARS Report Enhancements

The FY2019 PATH ARS report has been released. A new Housing Outcomes question has been added, a few outdated questions have been removed, and the remaining questions have been renumbered and updated to use the current data standards.

Intake / Admission - New Fields Available for Requirement

Several fields on the single step intake form are now available to be set as required. Examples include the Residence County and Mother's Maiden Name fields. For a complete list of fields which can be set as required, please reach out to the Help Desk.

Online Help - New Training Films Available

The following new training films are now available from within Online Help:

With this deployment, agencies now have the option to add a Mileage field when working with client progress notes. Whole numbers and decimals are accepted in the new field, which can be turned on at the program type level. When the Mileage field is set to display as a field on progress notes, it is also available as an option when running the Progress Notes and Service Contacts ReportBuilders, and is displayed with the note data on the Progress Notes Report.  Further, billing procedures can be invoiced using the new Mileage field, as described in the "BillingBuilder - Procedure Unit Calculations Based on Progress Notes Mileage Field" announcement, above.

ReportBuilders - New "All Clients" Filter Option

Have you ever run a ReportBuilder report and wished you could display all clients who do not have any data in the report? This new feature allows users to pull in all clients on the roster, including those clients without records. The following three options are now available and display as radio buttons on the ReportBuilder - Settings page for most client-centric ReportBuilders:

  Clients with Records - This default option replaces the current "All Clients" selection on the initial ReportBuilder Settings page. When this option is selected, only clients with records matching the report settings display on the report. Clients without matching records are not included.

  All Clients - When selected, all clients on the roster display on the report - those who meet the report settings, and those without matching records or no records.  Clients without records are indicated on the report with "--" for all fields except demographic fields.

  Select Client - This option, previously labeled "Expand Clients," is used to limit report contents to those records for a single client only.  When selected, a corresponding client selection drop-down is automatically displayed, with which the appropriate client can be selected.

Using the new All Clients option can be used to produce some very useful reports. The following are some examples of use cases for the new All Clients option:

  Progress Notes ReportBuilder - You can create a report that displays all clients with notes written and all clients who do not have notes for the specified date range. Using the filter functionality, you can also create a report that allows you to easily identify all clients who have a Periodic Summary Note (or any other specified note type) and all clients who do not meet that filter criteria.

  Providers ReportBuilder - You can create a report that displays all clients with active providers and all clients who do not have a provider assigned. Using the filter functionality, you can also create a report that displays a specific Provider Type and include all clients who meet the filter criteria and clients who do not. For example, you may want to see all clients who have a primary care physician and all clients who do not.

  NOTE: When using the filter functionality, the report displays clients matching the applied report filters and displays all remaining clients who do not meet the filter criteria with "--" in the record fields.

Reports Module - "Restrict to Aggregate View"  Permission Access Change