The following new features, enhancements, and updates will be available in your AWARDS database beginning on Wednesday, October 20th!

The following updates have been made to the billing configuration options, to allow for more flexibility when generating the 837 claim file:

  BillingBuilder > Payers - A new field called Override Trading Partner ID Qualifier ZZ in 837 (ISA05) has been added to the Payer configuration page. In this field enter the two character alphanumeric qualifier as requested by the payer.  If left blank, "ZZ" will be inserted in the 837 claim file by default.

  BillingBuilder > Configure Billing Types > Edit or Add New Procedure - The Measurement Code (SV103) option has been updated to include an option for “Minutes (MJ).” The two other options have been relabeled to “Units (UN)” and “Days (DA).” The code selected here will appear within the SV2 section of the 837 file.

Updates have been made to the BillingBuilder > Payment Postings feature to allow for adjustments to be applied to invoices. Specific changes are as follows:

  The Invoice Payment sub-index available when viewing an invoice has been renamed Invoice Transactions. 

  A new Transaction Type option is available when adding an invoice transaction record. Available selections are "Payment" (the default) and "Adjustment." 

  If "Adjustment" is selected, users must enter the transaction date, whether the adjustment should reduce or increase the balance, enter the amount and select a reason/type.  If reducing the balance, the amount being applied cannot be greater than the balance amount.

  If  "Payment" is selected, users must enter the transaction date, whether the payment should reduce or increase the balance, enter the amount and select a payment type. A reason/type can also be entered, if needed. If reducing the balance, the amount being applied cannot be greater than the balance amount.

  When adding either a payment of adjustment, the Amount entered can be positive or negative, depending on whether the balance is being increased or decreased and the transaction type.

  Adjustments and payments added here are available on the BillingBuilder ReportBuilder, as well as captured on the Audit Trail ReportBuilder. 

  A new Payment Type data variable has been added to the BillingBuilder ReportBuilder and will report whether a payment is a Payer, Personal Copay, or Personal Non Copay.

The Medication section of client face sheets now includes a column for Medication Flag, allowing for easy at-a-glance reference to this key medication information if it has been entered in the client's Medication records.  

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!  

  December 1, 2021

  January 12, 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.   

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. 

AWARDS Insurance & Access Packages

In this edition of Exploring the Options we are showcasing the AWARDS Insurance & Access Packages - which provide you with extra security when it comes to accessing your AWARDS database and saving data backups.

AWARDS has built in permissions setting features that allow you to determine which staff members can log in and what exactly they can access once in the database. Further, your data is safely stored on secure servers that are constantly backed up. That said, some agencies prefer to have some added security buffers baked into their work with AWARDS. The Insurance and Access Packages are great add-on features to consider if you too would like to add some cushion.

The Insurance Package, which costs $2,000 annually, provides agencies with a copy of their full data file on a monthly basis. This data file, which is only accessible through AWARDS, can be an added comfort for agencies that want to have a full backup copy available. This package also includes a Software Escrow Service option, which involves a third party holding a copy of the AWARDS source code. In the unlikely event that Foothold enters bankruptcy, customers with this option have access to the source code.

The Access Package, which costs $2,500 annually, allows for two different filtering options when it comes to accessing AWARDS. The IP Filtering option is useful for agencies who want to limit staff ability to access AWARDS from designated worksites. With this feature, you can authorize a list of IP addresses and/or domains that allow access to AWARDS, and all others, like employee homes, will be denied. Similarly, the Work Schedule Filtering option allows for limiting access to AWARDS during scheduled work hours. With this option, your database is configured to only allow staff access to client records when they are within their designated working hours. 

Now Available in the FCM Billing Module - Write Offs!

We received feedback from our Health Home customers that when doing their accounting they needed the ability to write off claims for which they were not expecting to receive payment.  We're excited to share that in response to this feedback we built a feature that can accommodate writing off a bulk list of claims.  This should help our customers when it comes to getting a more accurate sense of their open accounts receivable! 

In 2015, Foothold established the AWARDS Impact Prize to recognize customers who have leveraged AWARDS to measurably impact the health and well-being of the communities they serve. We are excited to share their stories with you here! This month let's meet Mothers & Babies Perinatal Network!

When our third Impact Prize winner - Mothers & Babies Perinatal Network of Binghamton, NY - began using AWARDS in 2017, they were looking for a robust information management system that would allow them to track social determinants of health for their clients, better link services within their agency to speed up referrals, manage client data for programs collaborating with other healthcare and justice systems, and remove the "siloed effect" services that limit their impact as an organization.

Mothers & Babies provides perinatal, youth, family support, and health insurance assistance services.  To give you just one example of the impact AWARDS has had, by using the data collected in AWARDS, they were quickly able to see a link between the students they were seeing in classroom settings and students who have significant Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), reinforcing the importance of their Trauma-Informed programming. With this data-backed knowledge, they are able to identify higher-at-risk groups, better inform their program delivery, and change what programs they are delivering to a group.  

Mothers & Babies also needed a system that would pave the way for them to be truly paperless.  As any service provider knows, paper charts can be costly, time-consuming, and a drain on physical resources.  But this agency probably understands better than anyone the benefits of electronic documentation.  Unfortunately, they experienced a loss of documents through an unpredictable tornado that took off the roof and caused significant water damage. Having electronic documentation ensures their charts will always be safe and secure in the future.   

Congratulations to Alicia Beekman, Abby Kaiser, and Nancy Libous of Mothers & Babies Perinatal Network as a 2021 Impact Prize winner!

In this edition, David shares with us his recent experience at an EHRA sponsored Congressional briefing on Social Determinants of Health (SDoH). David was asked to moderate the session, as well as provide personal comments - which he shares here. 

Recently, I was asked to moderate an EHRA (Electronic Health Record Association) sponsored congressional briefing discussing Social Determinants of Health (SDoH). It was very encouraging that there were over 65 staffers participating, representing both sides of the aisle, as well as large representation from various federal agencies and stakeholder organizations. There were some excellent takeaways, so I thought I would share highlights from the speakers, as well as my personal comments from the briefing.

The session included representation from a small pediatric practice, a large healthcare system, a national social services organization, and electronic health record organizations. Not surprisingly, the themes emerging from the various perspectives aligned on many points. The fact that health care itself accounts for only 10 to 20 percent of healthy outcomes for individuals brings into clear focus the importance of non-clinical factors, and the need to incorporate these factors into all discussions about individual and community health. 

The panelists highlighted various challenges:

  Lack of communication between systems

  Lack of available and accessible social services

  Lack of understanding of the relationship between health and health equity / social determinants

  Lack of funding opportunity for social service and disability providers to access funding for advance electronic health information systems, or in many cases any electronic system

After a series of questions addressing these issues, I had the opportunity to share my thoughts. Here is a synopsis of my comments:

“As others have said earlier, recognition of the importance of Health Equity and SDoH is an important and necessary first step to address the issues healthcare is faced with today. Many of the issues that were discussed today have existed for years and still exist today; lack of resources that provide opportunities for people who have been either born into, or by some other factor, have landed in a place where basic human needs are not met. Conditions such as food security, safe/healthy living environments, employment opportunities, and opportunities for quality education are not available, and where many more other social inequalities exist.  Providing more opportunities and services that address these inequalities is a critical component to addressing the problem, but so is the identification of that need and the linking of individuals to the available services. Standardized information and technology is necessary.  Most community based services providers in the disability and social service world did not benefit from programs like Meaningful Use, that provided necessary resources to kickstart interoperability and the meaningful use of electronic health information. Providing similar opportunities for technology upgrades and opportunities for information exchange in a standardized manner for community support providers in the disability and social service space will be critical to successfully address the SDoH inequities. Additionally funding for improved connectivity in areas where there is low or nonexistent internet service, as well as improved rates that cover the cost of identifying and addressing social determinate issues.”

Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health are a major topic of conversation in Washington today.  At the administration's direction, all federal agencies have organized workgroups to address this critical issue.  As opportunities for further input or potential for funding opportunities become available we will share that information.