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STATE OF WASHINGTON

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES

Aging and Long-Term Support Administration

Home and Community Services Division

PO Box 45600, Olympia, WA 98504-5600

H15-011 – Information

February 6, 2015

|TO: |Home and Community Services (HCS) Division Regional Administrators |

| | |

| |Area Agency on Aging (AAA) Directors |

| | |

| |Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDA) Regional Administrators |

|FROM: |Bea Rector, Director, HCS |

| | |

| |Don Clintsman, Deputy Assistant Secretary, DDA |

|SUBJECT: |Billing Assistance for Social Services Unit (BASS) |

|Purpose: |To introduce the BASS Team and provide information about their role and responsibilities. |

|Background: |The BASS unit was created in September of 2014 with the purpose of assisting all Long-Term Services and |

| |Supports providers, who are not Individual Providers (IPs), with their transition to and continued use of, |

| |our state’s payment system, ProviderOne. The BASS team works in partnership with field staff to ensure that |

| |providers are reimbursed for the services they have provided. |

| | |

| |The BASS mission is to provide high quality customer service by assisting providers with all billing |

| |questions and problems. To accomplish this unit staff strive to assist each provider to become comfortable |

| |with the system in order to confidently submit their claims. |

| | |

| |The team is composed of 14 staff that answer social service provider billing questions, provide assistance, |

| |and trouble shoot problems using the new ProviderOne payment system. The team has a real-time call-line |

| |system that tracks the number of calls in the queue and the wait time for callers on hold. Providers may |

| |also submit questions by email. |

| | |

| |The BASS team is part of the HCS Home and Community Programs headquarters unit in Lacey. |

|What’s new, changed, or |BASS staff handle social service provider billing questions and problems (this does not include Individual |

|Clarified |Providers, IPs). Case managers handle provider authorization questions and problems. |

| | |

| |Between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. the BASS unit focuses on incoming phone calls. When the phone lines are off the |

| |unit focuses on provider follow-up, processes email requests, and processes online provider tickets. |

| | |

| |ProviderOne Go Live began January 15, 2015. Most providers chose to follow their normal cycle of billing on |

| |the last week of the month in order to receive payment the first week of February. As a result, BASS is |

| |experiencing a tremendous increase in the volume of calls, from an average of 150 calls per day to over 500. |

| |In addition, the call duration has doubled, from 10 minutes to over 35 minutes. The volume and wait times |

| |will diminish as providers gain experience with the system. |

|ACTION: |Please assist providers by taking the following actions: |

| | |

| |Direct providers to the ProviderOne training website at altsa.dshs.providerone/. Assist providers |

| |by helping them navigate to the appropriate tab, i.e. Billing & Claims (for Social Service Providers), |

| |Enrollment (for all providers) or Medical Providers. |

| | |

| |Encourage providers to utilize the training site which contains tutorials, “how to” guides, hints and tips, |

| |and other useful resources. The tutorials are short and easy to use and the “how to” guides provide step by |

| |step directions for enrollment and billing. These resources used by the BASS team to answer provider |

| |questions. The training site is located at |

| | |

| |Refer all social service (not IP) provider billing and payment questions to the BASS unit. Providers may |

| |contact BASS by: |

| | |

| |Phone: 800-562-3022 (after the short introduction, press 5 for Providers, then 1 for Social Services) |

| | |

| |Online Ticket: |

| | |

| |Email: BASS@dshs. |

| | |

| |Encourage providers to use the “Call-Back” feature when they are waiting on the phone. The “Call-Back” |

| |feature allows callers to hang up without losing their place in line. When they are the next person in line, |

| |the phone system will call their number to connect to a BASS team member. |

| | |

| |If you think there is a systems issue that the BASS team is not aware of or would like to provide information|

| |about a particular provider issue, please follow the steps of the post-implementation support escalation |

| |process: |

| |Case managers report the issue to their supervisor |

| |Supervisors report any issues they cannot resolve to the JRP or Payment Coordinator |

| |JRP or Payment Coordinator log any unresolved issues into the SharePoint Debrief Log for resolution by the HQ|

| |project team. |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| |If there are issues with provider contracts, work with your supervisors and local contract staff. Local |

| |contract staff may contact the ALTSA Contracts Unit for assistance with problems that cannot be resolved |

| |locally. |

|CONTACT(S): |Seanna Sams, BASS Operations Manager |

| |360-725-3276 |

| |Seanna.Sams@dshs. |

| | |

| |Dustin Quinn Campbell, Program Manager, |

| |360-725-2535 |

| |QUINNDW@dshs. |

| | |

| |Beth Krehbiel, DDA Eligibility/Social Services Payment System Program Manager |

| |360-725-3440 |

| |KrehbB@dshs. |

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