ASCEND-HI -- VERSION RELEASE NOTES
Version 2.14.53 (07/03/2007 )
The online help available for the Ascend-HI program is regularly updated to reflect changes in product features. Please remember to use the help file as a more detailed reference than these release notes.
NOTE: This version of the Ascend-HI program works with the following companion program versions:
AscendHI.DLL - Version 1.1.1380
UpdateHI.EXE - Version 1.1.797 (20061126 <-- This is the last sequential internal update performed by this version)
** This update package includes an enhancement that provides error-free bulk-importing of First Databank data that contains Spanish characters.
Here is a list of things you may need to do to make your product work with this update
In this release, the names of two reports are changed:
Inventory Usage is now: Inventory Usage Based On Order Changes.
Inventory Usage Old is now: Inventory Usage Based On Orders.
Users of the product who run one either of these reports should be informed of the name changes.
Please see related CSRs 276 and 1004.
Here is a list of new features and enhancements
CSR = Customer Service Request
CSR: 996 -- Request: The state of Michigan has a new requirement for CURES reporting. The Patient ID needs to be placed into positions 026-045. Resolution: Added a case statement to place the Patient Id (padded with spaces to the right up to 20 characters) into positions 026-045 of the CURES report when the state of the issuing facility is "MI" (Michigan).
CSR: 983 -- Request: When a user deletes a facility, the Last Updated sequence number is lost. After that, when an update is applied, the update attempts to run every update sequence that has ever been made for the product. Resolution: This has been corrected by checking in the Update program whether the Last Updated sequence number is blank. If so, then a message is presented to the user that the update cannot proceed. When the user clicks OK to the message, the program is aborted.
CSR: 978 -- Request: CURES narcotics reports sent to the state of Indiana are getting rejected because of a missing required field. Ascend-HI is currently not sending the required Customer ID field in positions 026-045 for reporting to the state of Indiana. This field is currently required only by Indiana, so only when the facility generating the report has an Indiana address should this information be sent in positions 026-045. Otherwise, these positions should continue to be filled with blanks as before. Resolution: Modified the CURES narcotics reporting code to check if the facility is located in Indiana. If so, the Customer ID (Patient ID) is placed into positions 26-45 (padded on the right with spaces if the ID is less than 20 characters).
CSR: 869 -- Request: There are several changes to the reporting requirements for controlled substances prescription information (CURES reporting) for the State of California. Changes are effective July 1, 2007. Resolution: Modified the Narcotics Export class module in the Ascend-HI.exe program. The CURES report format has been modified for exports from facilities with a California (CA) address. The proper 'IR' (Information Receiver) segment information is now included as specified for California. The NPI, DEA and State License numbers are also now being included in the 'PHA' (Pharmacy) segment.
CSR: 838 -- Request: See CMS1500/HCFA-1500 (v1.3) specifications for Florida Medicaid. For data in box 17a (Qualifier and Other Provider ID Number for referring physician), the specifications allow for a 'MediPass Referral' or 'Service Authorization Number' to be entered in the Provider ID field, with a qualifier code of '9F'. Currently, Ascend-HI does not allow for this selection of provider ID or qualifier value. Resolution: Added ‘HCFAOtherID’ field to the Doctor record in the database as varchar(17) to accommodate a ‘Medipass’ or ‘Service Authorization Number’ (or other ID Type of up to 17 characters). Added ‘HCFAOtherIDQualifier’ field to the Doctor record in the database as varchar(4). This qualifier field is a text field in the database, so it can carry a text qualifier of up to 4 characters. Made room in the Doctor screen below the existing UDF/Qual fields for the new ‘Other Id:’ and ‘Other Qual:’ fields, and added the new fields and their labels to the screen. Note that the labeling of the 'Other Id:' can be changed by double-clicking the label (just like the user-defined field labels). Modified the Doctor object in the DLL to handle the new doctor fields. Made room in the Payer screen to the right of the existing Box 17a field (under the ‘HCFA’ tab) for the new ‘Box 17b:’ field, and added the new field and its label to the screen. Modified the Payer object in the DLL to handle the new payer field. Added ‘HCFABox17b’ field to the Payers record that stores whether or not to send the NPI in Box 17b. Modified the SQL for the HCFA-1500 (v1.3) form to include the new fields from the Payer and Doctor records. Modified the Crystal Reports file for the HCFA-1500 (v1.3) form to accept the new SQL information, use it to populate Box 17a with the correct qualifier and provider ID and to determine whether to populate Box 17b with the NPI.
CSR: 384 -- Request: Per industry standards, AWP pricing is being phased out. Clients need to be able to price by WAC and ASP. WAC pricing is now available from First Databank data files, but Ascend-HI does not have the ability to use the WAC values for billing. The ability to use WAC in the pricing rules must be added to the program. Resolution: The Ascend-HI program now imports WAC data from First Databank files. The WAC pricing history is now displayed in the Price History tab of the Inventory screen. The Pricing Rules screen has been modified to include WAC pricing. Pricing based on the WAC prices is now available.
CSR:
276 -- Request: The two reports, 'Inventory Usage' and 'Inventory
Usage Old', are not clearly defined as to how/why they are different, what
different data feeds the two reports and why, if a client runs both reports
for same date range, they usually get different results. Please rename the
reports (both name and printed report title) to accurately reflect what data
is used and what the report is supposed to show.
The 'Inventory Usage' report runs against the Order Changes table and will
show all items with changes in the date range entered. Suggest a name change
to 'Inventory Usage based on Order Changes' and, in the report itself,
somehow indicate that the report selects data based on the order change date
only.
The 'Inventory Usage Old' report runs against the Orders table and will show
only final results of any changes made in the date range. Suggest a name
change to 'Inventory Usage based on Orders'. Resolution: The changes to resolve this issue include:
Modified report names in 18 places in the Ascend-HI.exe program. Added a sequential update to the UpdateHI.exe program to change the names of the reports in the SQLSourceLinks and SQLSourceTypes tables of the database. Modified the report name and summary information in the Crystal Reports file of each report. Removed old Crystal Reports files from the Ascend-HI distribution package and added the new report
files (the new report file names directly reflect the changed report names).
Here is a list of things fixed
CSR: 1004 -- Request: The Inventory Usage and Inventory Usage-old Crystal Report files were replaced in version 2.14.44 of Ascend-HI. However, the original report files ('Inventory Usage.RPT' and 'Inventory Usage Old.RPT') remain on the user's disk, and therefore appear in the list of available reports when the Reports screen is opened. When the user clicks on one of these reports, an error message states that there is no report record source for the selected report. These report files should now be removed from the client's disk so they no longer appear on the reports list. Resolution: A sequential update (Update20061126) has been added to the UpdateHI.exe program that automatically removes the original report files ('Inventory Usage.RPT' and 'Inventory Usage Old.RPT') from the local (client) disk, as well as from the server disk. Please see related CSR: 276.
CSR: 1000 -- Request: Automated waste logging is no longer occurring. Even with the option set to 'prompt for waste' in the Order Entry tab of the Options screen, answering 'Yes' when prompted by a message about logging waste during the order entry process does not cause the waste quantity to be logged into the database table. Resolution: The statement that logs the waste quantity was moved to a position in the code above where the order changes are saved to the database. This causes the calculated order waste to not just be saved to the object in memory, but also be logged into the database table (OrdersItems) for the order item.
CSR: 992 -- Request: Add a new 'Order Dates Comparison' report that shows cases where the 'Fill Start Date' is equal to the 'Order Stop Date', and the 'Order Start Date' is different from the 'Order Stop Date'. New 'Order Dates Comparison' report needs to include order description, fill quantity and the first 40 or so characters of the Patient Instructions. Resolution: Included the new 'Order Dates Comparison' report as defined with this release update package.
CSR: 991 -- Request: When sending X12 claims at least one switch vendor is rejecting the N3 and N4 segments that are being included in loop 2420A (Rendering Provider). Resolution: The specifications for the X12 2420A loop do not allow inclusion of the N3 or N4 segment. Modified the AscendHI.dll program (X12 object, AddClaim subroutine) to no longer include the N3 and N4 segment in the 2420A loop of an X12 batch.
CSR: 988 -- Request: When creating the X12 batch file, the program including the NM108 qualifier regardless of whether the NM109 (NPI or EIN) field is populated. If the NM109 field is not populated, and the NM108 is, then a rejection is received on the claim submission. Resolution: There are cases where the NPI and Federal Tax ID of a doctor, supplier or facility is not known, but the user wants to create a X12 batch anyway, because the payer is still accepting unpopulated NM108 and NM109 fields for providers. However, either both fields must be properly populated, or both fields must be empty. Previously, the AscendHI.dll program automatically populated the NM108 qualifier field based on the 'ID Type' settings for the target payer ("XX" if NPI, or "24" if EIN). The code that populates X12 NM108 qualifier fields has been modified to only populate the NM108 qualifier field if there is a non-empty value available for the NM109 field. Otherwise, the NM108 and NM109 fields will not be populated. If the value for the NM109 field is empty, the batch is still created, but the user will be warned in the 'X12 Errors.txt' file that the value was missing. As long as the target payer accepts an empty NM108/NM109 field set, the batch can be sent regardless of the warnings about the missing NM109 information.
CSR: 979 -- Request: After updating to version 2.14.43, SIG codes do not work (when a SIG code is entered into the Patient or Doctor Instructions field, the code does not expand to the text linked to the SIG code). Resolution: This is due to the fact that the AscendHI.dll program was expecting a SIG code list to be set as the default list for each facility. If this was not done, then no SIG codes were active. The new UpdateHI.exe includes an auto-population of the defaults. The new Ascend-HI.exe program auto-populates the default SIG codes list value (if there is none already) with a new list as it is being added (from within the Utilities->Options screen under the Order Entry tab). The auto-populated default SIG Codes list can be manually de-selected if the user does not want a default SIG Codes list. Now, if no default SIG Codes list is selected for a facility, users logged into that facility will have access to all of the available SIG codes from all of the lists. Please see related CSR: 765.
CSR: 975 -- Request: When processing a claim that has a 'credit' detail line, the X12 batch generates unnecessary 'error' messages in the X12Errors.txt file. Resolution: The error text is generated because there is no link between the credit detail line and any specific order, and therefore expected information is not available. This is corrected by filtering out the claimsItems records that have a ClaimsItems.TotalPrice less than, or equal to zero.
CSR: 970 -- Request: Various changes are needed to align fields and correct minor issues with the HCFA: display the dividing line between boxes 29 and 30; tone down the gray text "NPI" in boxes 32a and 33a; refine the alignment of all amount fields (boxes 20, 24F, 28, 29, 30); remove comma, decimal point and dollar signs from amount fields in boxes 20 and 30; format Charges field in box 20 as defined in specs. Resolution: Modified the Crystal Reports file for the HCFA-1500 (v1.3). Added the dividing line between boxes 29 and 30. Changed the color of the 'NPI' in boxes 32a and 33a from gray to silver, which produces lighter printed characters. Realigned boxes 20, 24F, 28, 29 and 30. Also removed any dollar signs, decimal points and commas from these currency fields. The currency in box 20 is now printed entirely in the middle section of the box as per specifications. Slightly widened the qualifier 'sub-box' in box 17a and moved the qualifier text further to the right to accommodate some pre-printed forms.
CSR:
968 -- Request: Clients report getting an error message from the
Ascend-HI validation after creating ANSI X12 batch file. The
validation reports that there is no referring provider federal tax ID nor
ordering provider Federal Tax ID. Discovered that this happens only on
claims created that have a credit line posted in claim. In this case, the
claim's detail line is not associated with an order and does not need to be
validated for provider information. Resolution: This issue relates to the way the
AscendHI.dll code processes the detail lines of a claim. When a normal detail line is processed, the 'NM1 Loop 2310A -- No Referring
Prov. Record' error is placed into the X12Errors.txt file only when the referring provider record is not found. The X12Errors.txt file is available for display to the user when any potential problems are detected. The user can select to view the file when prompted by the program that there are potential problems with the X12 batch.
However, when a 'credit' detail line is processed, there is not a link to the referring provider (this is appropriate), and therefore this error message was inappropriately generated. It is important to note, however, that even though this error message was generated, the X12 batch itself is still generated properly, and is
able to be submitted.
To resolve this problem, the SQL that pulls database records related to the claim has been modified to no longer retrieve the claim detail lines that have no dollar amount
(ClaimsItems.TotalPrice > 0). This eliminates the processing of the credit lines in claims, and therefore the error message that appears in the X12Errors.txt file only appears if a valid problem exists (the referring provider record is not found where there actually should be one). NOTE: The referring provider is the doctor who is named in the Order from which this detail line of the claim is
pulled.
CSR: 967 -- Request: In X12 transmissions, the 2010AA loop needs to include a REF segment with an 'EI' qualifier and the provider's Federal Tax ID when the NPI of the provider is sent in the NM109 field. This was mistakenly coded as an 'E1' qualifier in releases 2.14.44 through 2.14.47. Resolution: Modified the AscendHI.dll program (X12 object, AddClaim subroutine). Inserted code for the 2010AA loop that checks whether the NPI is being sent in the NM109 field. If so, the code creates an additional REF Segment that includes the Federal Tax ID from the Supplier table record pulled up by the SQL. In this REF segment, the Federal Tax ID qualifier is set to 'EI'. If the NPI is not being sent in the NM109 field, then this additional REF segment is NOT created. This is because if the NPI is NOT being sent in the NM109 field, then the Federal Tax ID is sent instead, and there is no need to add the REF segment to include the Federal Tax ID again.
CSR: 880 -- Request: The program includes the required CR5 segment in the electronic X12 batch file for a claim's attached CMN 484.2 form. However, the program is not including the required CR5 segment in the electronic X12 batch file when a claim has an attached DME 484.3 (DIF) form. Claims are rejected because of the missing segment. Resolution: Changed the AscendHI.dll program to include the CR5 segment in the X12 batch for cases where the DIF/CMS/DME 484.3 is attached to a claim.
CSR: 765 -- Request: After updating to version 2.14.43, SIG codes are no longer viewable in the SIG Codes screen. This issue applies when a multi-facility user is logged into a specific facility. Only the SIG codes for that facility are listed, whereas before, all SIG codes were viewable. Resolution: The SIG codes organization has changed in the Ascend-HI product. SIG codes are contained in lists, and each list is linked to a facility. The Default SIG code list selected for each facility in the Options screen under the Order Entry tab is the list of SIG codes made available for use in orders created by users logged into that facility. If no SIG code list is set as the default for a facility, then ALL SIG codes in ALL lists linked to that facility or the <All Facilities> facility are made available to users logged into that facility. Please see related CSR: 979.
CSR: 490 -- Request: When a location is added to a facility in the Facilities window, the label and textbox for the NPI still appears. The user can enter data, but since there's no field for NPI in the location record of the database, the data is not saved. This data entry box (and its label) should not appear when adding a location. Note that when editing an existing location, the box and label do not appear. Resolution: Added code to make the label and textbox for the NPI invisible when adding or editing a location.
First Databank Updates
To determine the date of the First Databank files currently installed into your database, follow the steps of:
1. Click on the HELP option of
the main menu of the Ascend-HI screen. From the pull-down menu that
appears, Select the 'About Ascend-HI' option to activate the ABOUT screen.
2. On the right-hand side of the
ABOUT screen, the date is displayed as: First Databank Current as of
06/28/2007
NOTE: If a more current version of the First Databank files has been received by Hann's On Software since this release, you can go to the Hann's On Software website and perform a First Databank update that updates your Ascend-HI to the most current First Databank files.
HCPC Codes