KDHE

Here are some grant opportunities you and your practice may be interested in pursuing:

Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Nutrition Training Program – Application Deadline: May 7, 2018

Grants to establish and enhance nutrition centers of excellence to improve access to comprehensive, community-based, nutrition-centered, and culturally competent coordinated care by increasing the availability of practitioners trained in maternal and child health nutrition.

CDC Funding for Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Stroke – Application Deadline: June 11, 2018

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will make 51 awards of up to $3 million each to support state investments in evidence-based strategies to prevent and manage cardiovascular disease and diabetes in populations that are disproportionately affected.

Rural Health Care Telecommunications Program – Application Deadline: June 29, 2018

The Universal Service Fund (USF) Rural Health Care program reduces the cost of broadband connectivity for rural public or nonprofit health care providers or networks.  The fund is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) under auspices of the Federal Communications Commission.   Visit the USAC website to see a calendar for filing window periods as well as training events, webinars and resources.

KDHE

Accepting applications through Thursday, May 10, 6:30 pm

Apply Here!

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) released the 2018 Application and Program Guidance for the NHSC Scholarship Program.

The NHSC Scholarship Program awards funds to health profession students pursuing careers as primary care providers in exchange for their commitment to serve in high-need, underserved communities. Scholarship support includes tax-free payment of tuition, required fees, other reasonable educational costs, and a taxable monthly living stipend.

After completion of graduation/training, recipients fulfill their service commitment at one of more than 16,000 NHSC-approved sites throughout the nation and its territories. Each scholar serves for a minimum of two years and receives one year of financial support (up to four years) for each year of service at an NHSC site.

KDHE

Stage 1 of the Kansas Modular Medicaid System (KMMS), the new Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS), is now operational. KMMS will allow providers in Kansas’s Medicaid managed care program, KanCare, a more streamlined and intuitive workflow, making it easier for them to complete the enrollment process for KanCare. It includes a new Automated Voice Recognition System (AVRS) to facilitate customer service calls to make the process easier and faster. Provider management will also create the foundation for the modules coming in Stage 2 and captures information necessary to improve program integrity.

Stage 1 Modules include:
• Customer Self-Service Portal (CSSP) – provides Single Sign-On technology, Customer Relationship Management through Microsoft Dynamics software and an upgrade to the Avaya Automated Voice Response System.
• Provider Enrollment (PE) – contains a new PE wizard used for provider enrollments and revalidations.
• Program Integrity and Utilization Management (PIUM) – brings new analytic tools to monitor billing and utilization services, a new reporting tool to visually display and report data using the SAS Fraud Framework and a new case management tool – SAS Enterprise Case Management.
• inSight Dashboard – new performance metrics tool using 10 dashboards, management analytics using seven dashboards and scorecard reporting to assist in monitoring system and business process performance at DXC.

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services

If you’re participating in the Quality Payment Program, you now have until Tuesday, April 3, 2018 at 7 PM to submit your 2017 MIPS performance data. You can submit your 2017 performance data using the new feature on the Quality Payment Program website.

Note: For groups that missed the March 16 CMS Web Interface data submission deadline, it’s not too late to submit your data through another mechanism.

How to Get Started

Go to qpp.cms.gov and click on “sign in” on the top right side of the web page.

• You’ll be required to log into the Quality Payment Program data submission feature using your Enterprise Identity Management (EIDM) credentials user name and password. If you don’t have an EIDM account, you’ll need to obtain one. Review this EIDM user guide and get started with the process as soon as possible. Currently, you should allow at least 5 business days for EIDM requests to be processed.
• After logging in, the feature will connect you to the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) associated with your National Provider Identifier (NPI).
• You’ll be able to report data either as an individual or as a group. Be sure to login and get familiar with the feature before you submit your data.

Real-Time Score Projections

As you enter data into the feature, you’ll see real-time scoring projections for each of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) performance categories. This scoring may change if new data is reported or quality measures that have not yet been benchmarked are used.

Data can be updated at any time during the submission period. Once the submission period ends, CMS will calculate your payment adjustment based on your last submission or submission update.

Please note, your performance category score will not initially take into account your Alternative Payment Model (APM) status, Qualifying APM Participant (QP) status, or other special status—if applicable. To check your QP status, review the updated APM Lookup Tool.

Get Help and Learn More

Contact the Quality Payment Program by email at qpp@cms.hhs.gov or toll free at 1-866-288-8292, if you need help or have questions about using the data submission feature.

You can also view the data submission fact sheet and this video to learn more about the Quality Payment Program data submission feature.