Provider Notice issued 03/11/11

The Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) is pleased to announce that a cost-free system called the Medical Electronic Data Interchange (MEDI) has been enhanced. Effective immediately, admissions and changes in status of Medicaid-eligible long term care residents must be reported to the department using MEDI or the Recipient Eligibility Verification (REV) System. We expect MEDI will have a positive impact on the timelines for changes entered onto the department's Recipient Data Base, as it will help reduce the backlog in the Department of Human Services' (DHS) Family Community Resource Centers (FCRCs). HFS may require approval before certain transactions are accepted into the payment system. Facilities may access MEDI through the MEDI Web site.

The two REV vendors that support long term care provider activities are Passport Health Communications, Inc. (Nebo Systems) and Emdeon Business Services, aka Envoy Corporation, Medi Inc, Medifax (Not to be confused with the MEDI system identified above). Information on the REV system may be found on the REV Web site.

MEDI will allow the same transactions as those provided by the Long Term Care Electronic Data Interchange System, previously available only via REV vendors. Those transactions are:

• Admissions;

• Third Party Liability (TPL);

• Bed Reserve and Temporary Absence;

• Discharge, including death;

• Medicare Covered Services; and

• Updating of the Patient Credit.

MEDI can be used for reporting and updating an increase to the resident income for the current month or next month only. Changes for past months must be made by submitting Form HFS 1156, Long Term Care Facility Notification, to the DHS FCRC.

An admission or decrease to a resident's patient credit entered through MEDI or REV is not automatically updated, but is assigned a transaction number for tracking purposes. The transaction number along with the admit information is passed through to the DHS FCRC for handling. Income verification documentation for any patient credit for admissions or changes must continue to be submitted to the DHS FCRC. It is very important that verification documents be submitted to the DHS FCRC as the FCRC staff cannot work off the transaction until verification documents are received.

The long term care databases are accessible 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on normal State of Illinois work days. Facilities should exit out of the long term care page by 5:00 p.m. to avoid problems with next day access.

Questions may be directed to the Bureau of Long Term Care at 217-524-7245.

Theresa A. Eagleson, Administrator

Division of Medical Programs