The following new features, enhancements, and updates will be available in your AWARDS database beginning on Wednesday, May 19th.  

Based on customer feedback, we are thrilled to announce a new Custom Saved Views option is now available in the AWARDS Calendar! This exciting new feature includes:

  The ability to save custom views based on Staff/Client/Program/Location Criteria selections, the selected Events, the Day/Week/Month viewing period format, and the Calendar/List format.

  A new Saved Views drop-down menu has been added to the left-hand settings menu pane. A list of your custom saved views are available for selection from this drop-down, as well as options to save a brand new view, or make changes to an existing saved view and either replace (overwrite) it with the same name or save it with a new name.

  Each user can create and save up to 10 custom views.  These can only be saved for yourself and cannot be shared with other AWARDS users.

  On the Calendar > Settings page, a new Manage Saved Views section has been added where users are able to see a list of their saved views, view details of each saved view, delete saved views, and set and unset a saved view as the default.  (Note that only one saved view can be set as the default at a time.  The default saved view will display automatically you log into AWARDS and access the Calendar for the first time during that login session.)

In addition, please note that as a part of this feature deployment you may notice the following changes have been made when accessing the Calendar > Settings page.  

  The "View Options" portion of the page has been relabeled "Calendar Display Options" and is now a expandable/collapsible section.

  Both the "Manage Saved Views" and "Calendar Display Options" sections are collapsed by default.

 The left-hand Calendar settings menu pane is collapsed. It expands when you return to the main Calendar. 

Recently, we released a new Copay feature within Certified Entitlements. We are happy to announce that there is now a corresponding feature called Personal Payments, which can be accessed via the Entitlements fly-out menu (or through program appointments on the Calendar).  Specific items of note regarding this new feature are as follows: 

  Users assigned the Copay/Personal Payments data entry/access permission can access the new Personal Payments feature from the Entitlements menu. 

  A Personal Payment icon (credit card) also appears on event pop-ups for program appointments in the calendar, within the copay table for appointments today or in the past, and at the top of the pop-up for future appointments. Clicking this icon on the copay table opens a new personal payments data entry form, with much of the details pre-filled based on the copay information. 

  The Personal Payments feature allows users to record payments made by the client, the amount, payment date, whether the payment was a copay, and if so, for which insurance type (based on insurance records in effect on the payment date). 

  A read-only Unapplied amount field is also included on each record, which will eventually tie into billing. The index displays a Total Unapplied amount value which is the sum of the unapplied payments for the selected client. 

  A new Personal Payments ReportBuilder is also available on the Personal Payments index page, and in the Reports feature. 

Upcoming! A new Personal Payments Posting feature is currently being developed, where users can view billing information related to payments. 

Our partners at CellTrak are releasing an update to the Group Care feature both in the mobile app and in the Operations Team Portal. Already live in the mobile app are user interface changes that allow users to "add" individuals to group or ratio visits and next quarter there will be an enhancement to how these visits are calculated. Ratio billing is largely excluded from EVV mandates in most states, but if that changes or if your agency would like to track these types of visits CellTrak will be ready.

ReportBuilders are powerful reporting tools, located throughout AWARDS, that can be used to generate customized data reports. To add to our current collection of current ReportBuilders, a new ReportBuilder is now available for users with access to the Permissions Maintenance feature.  This new Permissions ReportBuilder can be used to generate customized reports on a user's access and permissions to determine what they have the authority to do in the system. Currently, the Permissions ReportBuilder is limited to running customized reports for individual workers, but stay tuned for additional improvements in coming months!

The Product and Engineering Team is working on many new initiatives and this month we are excited to share the following updates with you!

  AWARDS Infrastructure Shift Update - As noted last time, we will begin the effort of relocating the AWARDS application infrastructure in May.

  Beta Testing Sites - Moving forward, our new feature release process will allow for customers to have access to a beta site for an earlier look at upcoming changes. Stay tuned for a survey aimed at gathering your feedback on customer interest in our Beta process.

  BillingBuilder Stakeholder Focus Group - As our release process continues to evolve, the Product Team will be seeking interested customer stakeholders to participate in functionality-specific focus groups. The first focus group we will be creating is for the BillingBuilder work we are embarking on.  Stay tuned for a related survey!

  BillingBuilder Enhancements Webinar - We are excited to share that next month we will be holding a webinar focused on sharing the work we are planning for BilingBuilder functionality. Our team has worked to document the pain points customers have around AWARDS billing, and we are excited to share our plans for alleviating these. Stay tuned for more details.

This section of FootNotes is dedicated to bringing you up to speed on great AWARDS add-ons, features and functionality you may not be aware of.  Have a look to see if something here will work for you!

Taking Your Progress Note Electronic Signatures to the Next Level

Do your programs need to sign progress notes? How are you doing this today? Are staff printing them on paper and signing there, or are they electronically signing them in AWARDS? There are many benefits to electronically signing progress notes in AWARDS, and with the enhancements we have built into this feature recently, there are a variety of choices that allow you to tailor your signature options. 

Whether you are currently signing notes on paper, or using the older Business Rules version of e-signatures in AWARDS, we want to share with you the value of transitioning to the new e-signatures configuration feature. Some of the many benefits include:

  No limitations on the number of individuals who can sign a record

  Full flexibility regarding who can sign records, with options for staff, client, and third-party signers

  Granular ability to customize signature setup by note type and program type

  Alert messages when records are available for signing

  Reporting that allows for true quality assurance of record signing status

  Ability to set up signing order workflow requirements

  Options to document signature refusals, and to note when the signer is unavailable for signing and why

  Ability to provide an optional comments section for each signer

Foothold Care Management (FCM), formerly Relevant Health Homes, is excited to have joined the larger Foothold family in January 2021!  FCM is the leading care management platform for the New York State Health Home program.  We currently support the work of thousands of Care Managers at over 145 Care Management Agencies, and we are continuing to grow as we will be welcoming a new Health Home into the fold in September.  While FCM was originally built specifically with Health Homes in mind, we have begun expanding to support our customers' non-Health Home programs as well.

Do you get confused about the distinction between Program vs Program Type designations in AWARDS? Individual programs are the options you see in the program selection lists throughout AWARDS, and typically reflect a unique service program at your agency. Program Types, on the other hand, can be made up of a single program, but in most cases are comprised of a group of programs that operate in a similar way. 

This distinction is important when it comes to how the many data fields and features are configured in your AWARDS database:

 You have probably noticed the Program Type field within PlanBuilder when selecting which plan to enable.

  If you've made changes to Service Types, Note Types, Charting Timetable Events or a few other options, the team at Foothold made sure that you're aware the changes will be applied to all programs in the type. 

  When you create a new program in Administration > System Setup > Agency Program Information > Add/Edit Entire Program, you choose the Program Type the new program will belong to. This is an important step, as the Service Types, Note Types, Charting Events, PlanBuilder plan and other options will be passed on to the new program. 

To see which programs are in which Program Type categories in your database, take a look at Reports > Agency Programs ReportBuilder > All Agency Programs > Display One Row Per: Program (where applicable) > Saved Report Format = Programs by Program Type. With this information, you can determine how to best configure a new program and what programs will be impacted when making changes at the Program Type level.

For this installment of "News From The Field," we are excited to have guest writer Kelly Pickell - a Senior Success Manager on the Customer Experience Team - share his thoughts on how the COVID pandemic has affected homelessness and homeless services. Read on to learn about how the government has provided much needed funding in response, and  get updates from the two main homelessness conferences this year.

The COVID pandemic has wreaked havoc on homeless systems.  Shelters that were already full and overcrowded suddenly had to introduce social distancing and quarantine measures.  Meanwhile more people were experiencing homelessness for the first time due to high unemployment, higher rent costs, and a downturned economy.  Many states have already ended their eviction moratoriums and thousands of people are being displaced from their homes with no income and nowhere to go. 

Thankfully Congress did pass some legislation to assist states in their efforts to address homelessness. Thanks to the CARES Act of 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 an influx of new funding opened up to homeless service organizations. The CARES Act brought in $4 billion for Emergency Solution Grant (ESG) funding, $5 billion for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, and $65 million for the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program. Much of that money allowed communities to rent or purchase hotels for quarantine purposes and to expand the available affordable housing units. The ARPA provides even more assistance, including $5 billion in new funding to reduce homelessness, $21.5 billion for emergency rental assistance, and $5 billion in emergency housing vouchers.

But with all the new funding and all the changes in the homeless service realm, communities have struggled to learn how to adapt quickly enough to the rapidly changing environment.  To this end HUD has been releasing new guidance on a regular basis, holding monthly calls with HMIS Lead Agencies, and have shared a wealth of information at two of the biggest homeless conferences: The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) winter conference, and the National Human Services Data Consortium (NHSDC) spring conference. One side effect of the pandemic is that conferences have by and large adopted a virtual platform. This has made attending conferences much more affordable and convenient for people and these conferences were both very well attended and had a lot of important information for people working in the homeless services sector.

One of the big themes that came out of these conferences was the intersection between health and homelessness. In a country with no public healthcare system, those that can't afford private insurance are often left with few options and they tend not to get the preventative care that would help them stay healthy.  Individuals without stable housing end up relying on the Emergency Care system for health needs which is costly and far from ideal.  For this reason hospitals, mental health facilities, and local government all have a vested interest in helping address the housing needs of the chronically homeless individuals in their community and should be part of every Continuum of Care. If we can get people housed, they'll be able to get connected to preventative care and their reliance on emergency rooms has been shown to drop.

This is one reason why homeless service providers and mental health facilities have always been such a perfect fit for using a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) that contains Electronic Health Record (EHR) functionality. And now with the CARES and ARPA funding, Medicaid has also stepped up its game by expanding the scope of Medicaid Home Care services. At the NAEH conference a lot of time was spent making sure that homeless service organizations are billing Medicaid for eligible housing services. AWARDS Billing module can make the complex billing process much more streamlined and effortless by using the services that you already record as the basis for what to bill. Although Medicaid doesn't pay directly for housing, they can pay for much of the related services including eviction prevention and housing location services which can be used to prevent and end homelessness. 

If your community's Continuum of Care is not already partnering with local health offices, hospitals, and mental health facilities then this should become a priority for 2021.  If the current health pandemic has taught us anything, it's that we must protect the most vulnerable among us and that includes people experiencing homelessness.