Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Paloma Costa and I m the Program Manager of Outreach for the Rural Health Care

Transcription

1 Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Paloma Costa and I m the Program Manager of Outreach for the Rural Health Care program. And I m joined by Carolyn McCornac, also Program Manager for the Rural Health Care program. We re very excited to be able to share information with you about the new application management system for the Rural Health Care program, which we ve named My Portal. 1

2 For those of you who have already looked through the slides before today s discussion, what I m sure most of you have been waiting to hear. The Rural Health Care window open will be on April 16 th at 9 a.m. The 2012 funding year will be open in the new system, and today I d like to provide you will a high-level overview of My Portal. I d like to reiterate the new systems will have a new look-and-feel, but there will be no changes to program rules and the application process. So I ll start by explaining some of the new terms I think will be useful as we launch the new system. And then we ll talk about the benefits of My Portal. We ll also talk briefly about improvements to Search Posted Services tool, the registration process, important upcoming dates, and finally talk about what happens next. Please feel free to submit questions to us during this presentation. As you may have noticed, the lines are muted, but you can use the chat box on your screen in the right-hand corner to submit questions. We may not answer all of them today, but I promise we ll put together detailed responses and post them online shortly. And with that, we ll get started. 2

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4 So the first term is Legacy System, which is what most of you have used for submitting applications online. During 2012, you ll still need access to Legacy System for everything relating to funding years 2011 and earlier and we hope to have the system in full retirement by the end of the year, when you ll be using My Portal for all your 2012 applications. My Portal, as I mentioned, is the new system. We re calling it My Portal because it s a place where applications can be submitted, stored, and managed and accessed with the information related to all the applications for the health care providers that you re filing for. And I ll talk about that a little bit more. The User ID is, in conjunction with the password, is what everyone s going to need to access an HCP s account in My Portal. It s tied to the individual person rather than the HCP. The next term is the OAM or E-filing, which is the login page the applicant will see when they go into My Portal. Hopefully most of you on the call are already familiar with the process of registration since we ve been reaching out to applicants for several months to ensure that we have correct points of contact for each HCP. Anyone filing forms on behalf of an HCP must register with RHC to be able to access My Portal. We ll talk about registration towards the end of the discussion. 4

5 Once you ve registered for My Portal, you ll be what we call an Account Holder. There are two types of account holders: Primary Account Holders, and Secondary. The Primary Account Holder is the person responsible for managing all of the access to My Portal. There can only be one Primary Account Holder for a health care provider, but the Primary can authorize additional account holders, and these account holders are called Secondary Account Holders. Secondary Account Holders may have several levels of Account Rights, which is the next item on the list. A Secondary Account Holder with full rights is able to do everything a Primary Account Holder can do except add or remove account holders or change the rights of their own or others accounts. Secondary Account Holders with full rights and Primary Account Holders may complete all portions of an application, certify on behalf of an HCP, and sign and submit the form to USAC. A Secondary Account Holder with partial rights will be able to do everything on the form except for certifications, signing, and submitting to USAC. A Secondary Account Holder with partial rights can complete as much of the form as allowed and then click on an alert in My Portal for the authorized person, or Primary Account Holder, to review and complete. Finally, we have the Friendly Name. Since many applicants have multiple forms to manage, we created an optional field where an applicant can name its Form 465. We think this is going to be particularly useful if you manage several clinics with similar names and want a way to quickly and easily determine which 465 you re looking at. And again, this is an optional field, so if you don t need it, you can leave it blank, but we thought it would be something helpful for account holders managing multiple HCPs. 5

6 Now that you know most of the new terms we ll be using, let s move onto the discussion of the 10 key benefits of my new portal. 6

7 The first benefit relates to account holders IDs. As I mentioned a few minutes ago, each individual has his very own user ID and password. If you manage more than one HCP, you ll only need one single login to access all your HCPs. Once you verify that you have the authority to access the health care provider s account, we ll link that HCP to your My Portal page. Because of increased security, we asked that you do not share your user ID and password with anyone. If the Primary Account Holder would like to have an employee access My Portal, he or she can give them account access with their very own User ID and password. And as I discussed, we call these Secondary Account Holders. 7

8 So the individual login is just one example of the increased security that My Portal will provide. My Portal will allow a health care provider to store all of its information regarding forms in one location year after year. For those of you who have hunted through file cabinets, storage lockers, and old computers for information because of an audit request, this should be particularly appealing to you. In My Portal, you can save bills, contracts, funding commitment letters, HCP Support Schedules, and even s from RHC about your forms. Because this may be sensitive information, we want to be certain the account holder is authorized before we grant them access. In My Portal there s a tab called My Account Settings where a Primary Account Holder can manage his or her Secondary Account Holders in this section. In this section, Primary Account Holders can grant access to other users and give them their own password. 8

9 Speaking of passwords, we all struggle to keep our passwords memorized and we know there can be quite a few of them, especially in the legacy system where each individual has a separate login and password for individual HCPs, but sometimes I know you ll need to have them reset. In My Portal, once you re registered, if you forget your password, you can have it automatically reset, and if you need to provide updated contact information, you can do this online too without having to call our RHC customer support center. Since these options are available 24/7 through My Portal, you don t have to worry about delays if you need to make a change over the weekend or after 8pm East Coast time. And again, all this can be done through the My Account Settings tab in My Portal. 9

10 The next key benefit relates to forms management. I mentioned that we verify authorization before allowing access to health care providers account information. In our current legacy system, you have limited ability to manage your forms year after year, but now you can easily see and access all your forms plus all related documentation. You ll also be able to see s and official documentation from Rural Health Care all in My Portal. You ll be able to see the status of any form started online, see who s last worked on them, and when they were last worked on. You ll also see alerts by Rural Health Care if we need information, additional clarification, or if a deadline is looming and you haven t submitted your forms. If you submit a paper form, once approved, it will be added to the My Forms section. 10

11 While we always have many ways for applicants to submit information to us, with My Portal you can also upload documents directly using the application process and it will automatically be linked to the appropriate form. Most of you won t need to use this for the 465, but I think you ll really appreciate it once we get to the 466 or 466-A. Best of all, once you ve uploaded a document and RHC s approved it, you ll see it in the My Documents tab of the portal. So this is a good alternative to ing, faxing, or paper mailing the documents to us. 11

12 Assuming you do all of your application submissions online, and once your form is posted, all your documents corresponding to that form will be linked to the My Documents tab. As you see here, this documentation includes all the documents you ve uploaded, any funding commitment letters, support schedules, and automated s sent by RHC about the submission, review, and posting of your forms. Because your files are in one location, if you get a call from the Audits team, most of your information you ll need will be at your fingertips. Fewer audit findings for you makes everyone happy. 12

13 Our next benefit relates to the automated alerts. We know that you love getting s from us, so I m happy to report that won t stop. When you receive an alert that there s an issue on your form - we need clarification or documentation is missing - you ll also have an alert posted directly on the My Forms tab of My Portal. You can respond to that alert by clicking on a link and that response will be tagged on the form in question. If you need to submit documentation, you can upload it through that link. The great thing about My Portal is that even if a Secondary Account Holder does most of the day-to-day work in the application process, the Primary Account Holder can check it at any time, see the status of the forms, read through the s, look at the approvals, and make sure everything is on track. 13

14 We designed My Portal for your applicants and everyone who is involved in the RHC program too, which means faster processing. One example of the way My Portal will facilitate processing is RHC staff can more easily reach the right person when there is an open issue on the form. Issues get resolved more quickly and our team is able to process more packets, quicker. My Portal has enabled increased automation for internal processing, meaning less manual review and quicker turnaround time for applicants. 14

15 The next key benefit relates to the online assistance. We love hearing from you and we ll continue to be here to answer your questions and help guide you through the process as much as we can, but we ve designed a feature we hope will facilitate you accessing help directly. For instance, a link to the full instructions for all forms can be found on the first few screens of the form, where you ll likely need them. In every screen of the application process, you ll find line-by-line instructions available for that section so you won t have to go to a separate document to access instructions for each form. We are adding also an RHC Notes information section that will help you navigate through each page. 15

16 This is a screenshot of the upper right-hand corner of the My Portal page. Under the HCP Information, you will see a Contact RHC button on every page. This is a link that will access a screen shot of a message form that will go through My Portal. This that gets sent to the Contact RHC Help Desk will be linked to the form you re working on, ensuring we ll get the right information about the right form. And as with all of our s, we re committed to responding to them as quickly as we can. 16

17 The last key benefit that I want to talk about is the added information about the status of your form. My Portal allows us to provide you with more information about your forms throughout the process. You ll be notified when we receive your form, even if you mail it in, when it s in review, or requires additional information. You ll know when it was approved and posted and when and why if it was denied if it comes to that. This will occur for all forms, not just the 466. In addition to receiving an about each step of the review process, you can also see the status on the My Forms tab of My Portal. 17

18 So now, what I m sure everybody is waiting for, a sneak preview of My Portal. 18

19 So I ve talked a lot about what s in My Portal, but I ll give you an actual screen shot. So the first screen shot we have is the sign-in page. We talked about the OAM/E-File and this is what you re going to see once you log in. This is where you put your user ID and password once you ve gone through the registration system and click on the certification. 19

20 Whether you manage a single HCP or multiple HCPs, once you log into My Portal, you ll see four main tabs. The first tab is the My Forms tab where you ll see all your forms and the status of each one. My Documents will have PDF copies of your submitted and approved forms and supporting documentation if needed. Within My Documents, there s a folder called My Correspondence, which will house s and official correspondence, such as funding commitment letters and support schedules. Then there s the My HCPs tab, which displays all the HCPs in your account. That way you won t have to log off and on with a different username and password every time. Once we have authority to provide you access from an HCP, it s linked to you under My HCPs tab within My Portal. And the last tab is the My Account Settings where Primary Account Holders can manage all account holder information for an HCP and where contact information can be updated. 20

21 This is a screenshot of the four tabs within My Portal. As you see here under the red arrows, you see My Forms, My Documents, My HCPs, and My Account Settings. Based on which tab is selected, the information on the bottom of the screen will change. As I mentioned earlier, under the Help section, we have, in the upper righthand corner, the Contact RHC button, and highlighted on the top of the page is information about the HCP that has been selected. 21

22 Now that we ve gone over the key benefits, we ll talk about pre-registration and registration for My Portal. 22

23 We ve made several attempts to contact authorized users for each HCP by and by phone to confirm and update contact information for HCPs. Those who have responded have been pre-registered in the new system and those who did not respond may experience a slight delay in posting their FCC Form 465 for funding year

24 Consultants who are working to file forms for health care providers have an added step. They must submit LOAs for each HCP they re working with to be given access to the HCP s account. Consultants working on pre-registering you if you ve submitted those LOAs. For HCPs who are working with a consultant, you should contact your consultant to verify pre-registration has been completed. 24

25 HCP account holders who are pre-registered in the new system will receive s the week of April 9 th confirming that their accounts have been set up. HCPs who have not completed the pre-registration process will be able to log into the system when the system goes live on April 16 th to complete the registration process. It s a week later. We wanted to reiterate that you may experience a slight delay, but it should give you plenty of time to go through the 28-day competitive bidding period and post your form before all the activities need to be done in terms of competitive bidding before the fund year begins on July 1 st. For pre-registered users, the that goes out on the week of April 9 will contain information about next steps you ll need to take to complete the registration process and those actions should be taken within 72 hours of receiving the . If you have any questions about pre-registration, you can send an to rhcoutreach@usac.org. 25

26 Now Carolyn s going to talk about Search Posted Services. 26

27 This is just a bit for our service providers and I wanted to let everybody know that starting with funding year 2012, the Search Posted Services page will look a little bit different. We ve enhanced the search capabilities and I will get into that. However, I want to let everybody know that for funding year 2011 and earlier, you will still go to the same site you go to now and search in the same way you have been for posted services. For funding year 2012, the search tool has been greatly enhanced. We ve increased the number of search criteria you can use to drill down to find a 465. You can search by HCP name, number, state, service, type. You can also search within a specific time period. In addition to that, the search results will display the Line 29 language which explains the HCP s service needs. You can filter the search requests, and you can also export the details of the search request into an Excel database. We re really excited about this because we think it s going to really help our service providers get to the information they need a lot quicker. 27

28 Next we ll go over some important dates relating to the funding year and the new systems. 28

29 The first date is April 16 th, is when the window will be opening. We have two trainings planned related to the My Portal application system. The first is on April 5 th in Washington, DC, and the second one is in San Jose, California on April 28 th as part of the American Telemedicine Association conference. As I mentioned, My Portal registration will be from April 9 th through 15 th for HCPs who have been pre-registered, and other HCPs who are not pre-registered can go through the registration process once the system goes live on April 16 th. Our funding year begins on July 1 st, 2012 and runs through June 30 th,

30 Next steps related to My Portal. 30

31 As I mentioned, we have two trainings. The April 5 th training is the only training that will be conducted before the window opening. We have limited space, so you should plan to register soon if you would like to attend that conference. Information about both trainings are available on our website under Upcoming Events. It s on the Training Events page of the Rural Health Care website at usac.org/rhc. If you re planning to attend the ATA conference and the training at ATA related to My Portal, I wanted to note that the training is on the Saturday prior to the start of the conference, so you ll have to take that into account when you re making your travel plans. Registration for ATA is required to attend the My Portal training. The April 28 th training is going to be a shorter training than the April 5 th training. It will be four hours long followed by pilot program training in the afternoon. In addition to the live training, we ll also post Web-based training on our website. The training on registering and logging into My Portal will be posted in conjunction with the pre-registration sent out the Week of April 9 th. We ll also have three other trainings about navigating My Portal, posting your Form 465 using My Portal, and information related to consultants starting the week of April 16 th. If you have any questions about My Portal between now and the time that the window opens or pre-registration starts, you can direct them to rhcoutreach@usac.org and I would encourage you to keep an eye out for additional information to be sent through the RHC Circuit Newsletter and s and through our website. 31

32 Thank you for joining us today. 32