Provider Notice Issued 02/14/2020

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Date:   February 14, 2020

To:      Long Term Care Facilities - Nursing Facilities (NF), Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF/IID), Supportive Living Program providers (SLP), Medically Complex for the Developmentally Disabled Facilities (MC/DD), and Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitation Facilities (SMHRF)

Re:      ABE Partner Portal – Instructions for Creating Accounts and Uploading Documents

This notice informs Long Term Care (LTC) providers that they can now register for and utilize the ABE Partner Portal for the purpose of uploading documents in support of their residents’ eligibility and admission processing.

ABE, the Application for Benefits Eligibility, is the State of Illinois’ web-based portal for applying for, accessing and managing health coverage, SNAP and cash benefits, and the Medicare Savings Program (MSP). As Approved Representatives and/or Community Partners, LTC providers have been able to use ABE to apply for benefits and receive notices through the Customer Portal.

The ABE Partner Portal allows certain Medicaid Providers the ability to complete specific tasks or functions.  Authorized Long Term Care providers, through their Partner Portal account, can securely submit necessary documentation to the State to support eligibility determinations, changes in income, resources and TPL, or other relevant documents.

Primary Agency Security Administrator -

The first step in the registration process is for each organization to identify one employee who will act as the Primary Agency Security Administrator (ASA) for the purpose of managing agency staff that will use the ABE Partner Portal.  Details regarding this process are identified in a separate provider notice that is being simultaneously posted to the HFS website.  The provider notice instructs the ASA to:

1. Create a User Account in ABE designated as the Security Administrator
2. Request ASA approval through the ABE ASA Request SharePoint site
3. After HFS approval, invite other organization users to set up their own ABE User Accounts for ASA approval
4. Maintain records of all Partner Portal users in the organization 

ABE Partner Portal Accounts –

Agency ASAs as well as other organization users will be required to create an account in the ABE Partner Portal.  The ABE Homepage has a separate login button at the bottom “ABE Partner Login” that allows providers to create accounts and utilize the Partner Portal.  The ABE Partner Login screen has a link for users to create a new ABE User ID and Password.  Clicking on this link walks the user through the process of creating their account.  Important items to note:

1. Utilize your work email in the User Information section.
2. Designate whether you are the Agency Security Administrator or a Regular User.
3. Security questions and responses must be maintained if the user needs to recover or change their password in the future.
4. Passwords must be changed every six months.
5. Regular Users must also submit a Form 1706P to their Agency ASA for review and record keeping.

ABE Partner Portal -

For security purposes, a user’s identity must be validated each time they log-in to the ABE Partner Portal. ABE does this through a process called multi-factor or two factor authentication.

After completing Multifactor Authentication, organizations with multiple Provider IDs in their user profile will have a Location Selection page display. Organizations with only one location will be taken directly to the ABE Partner Portal Landing Page.

Document upload is resident specific and allows for providers to upload documents associated with the following transaction types:  Third Party Liability (TP), Income, Redetermination, Resource, or Other.

MEDI Transaction Audit Numbers (TANs) are required for documents uploaded to support a MEDI Income or TPL transaction, but are highly recommended whenever documents are uploaded to support MEDI LTC Admission transactions.  This would include the HFS 3654 - Additional Financial Information for LTC Applicants form that is submitted under the “Other” transaction type.

ABE Partner Portal Resources –

HFS staff have prepared documents to assist providers in setting up accounts and utilizing the Partner Portal.  Below are links to job aid for ASAs and Creating Partner Portal Accounts, as well as an overview of the entire registration process for and functionality of the Partner Portal (both in a Word document and a Power Point presentation).  HFS posted the following supporting documents to the Long Term Care Changes webpage as well as a narrated version of the Power Point presentation:

-       ABE Partner Portal - ASA Job Aid (pdf)

-       ABE Partner Portal - Creating an Account Job Aid (pdf)

-       ABE Partner Portal User Guide for LTC (pdf)

-       ABE Partner Portal Overview (pdf)

Questions regarding this notice may be directed to the Bureau of Long Term Care at

1-844-528-8444.

Doug Elwell

Medicaid Director