TRAC-IT Update 2024-01-26

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

Please note the following TRAC-IT update and tip:

Service Coordination Attempts to Contact Family:  In last week’s TRAC-IT update, we noted that SSG would be changing the box labeled “Family Contact” to say “Family Contact/Attempted Contact” so the Service Coordination Billing Extract could account for those attempts to contact. That change has been made. When documenting an attempt to contact the family, please ensure the narrative of your contact note specifies it was an attempt.

Transition: Based on questions received by the SSG Support Desk, here are a few tips/clarifications that might be helpful to users:

  • You can enter the Important Dates for Transition without entering a Transition Plan date. If the Important Dates are the only thing you’re entering, you should not enter a Transition Plan date because the Important Dates are not part of the transition plan. This works the same way it did on the paper IFSP form.
  • Once you enter the Transition Plan date, TRAC-IT will give an error message if you click Complete without entering data in all required fields. This validation is built in to ensure compliance with Indicator 8A.
  • If you are holding the first meeting to develop the transition plan you can either:
    • Enter the Transition Plan date, fill in information for the activities that were discussed/planned and SAVE the task. You can then go back and fill in the other transition plan activities over time; OR
    • Enter the Transition Plan date and write something in all the other required fields. For those activities where you did not make specific plans with the family, you can write something to indicate you reviewed briefly and will revisit at next IFSP review meeting or not interested yet or will discuss closer to transition. Then you can click COMPLETE and use the Update Transition Plan ad hoc task to revise later. 

TRAC-IT Update 2024-01-19

Local System Managers, Contract Providers and Independent Contractors:

Please note the following information in response to some common questions about the service coordination billing extract:

  1. Is the service coordination billing extract correctly calculating the three-month period for the required family contact? Yes. We have double-checked this, and it is correct.
  2. Does the service coordination billing extract consider attempts to contact when looking for a family contact within the past 3 months? It has not been doing so to date because TRAC-IT had no way to identify an attempt to contact. SSG is working on a change this week, and we are targeting mid to late next week to deploy the fix. The box labeled “Family Contact” will change to say “Family Contact/Attempted Contact.”

TRAC-IT Update 2024-01-11

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

I wanted to pass along one quick TRAC-IT update this week.

Learning Opportunities Field on Service Coordination Outcome: Since launching Phase II of TRAC-IT on December 11, the Support Desk has received several questions about the learning opportunities field being a required field on the service coordination outcome. This could be an appropriate field to complete if you think about it in terms of learning opportunities for the family in relation to their priorities and the specific needs that might be reflected in the short-term goals for service coordination. However, we recognize that there will be times that this field does not apply for the service coordination outcome. To assist users when completing the IFSP directly in TRAC-IT, that field (on the service coordination outcomes only) is now prepopulated with “update as needed.” This way, the value will be there already and users will not be stopped to enter something. SSG is also updating this for existing service coordination outcomes if the learning opportunities field was blank. By doing this, users will not be stopped unnecessarily during an IFSP Review. There may be a few instances where their algorithm does not catch the blank field, but most previous IFSPs should be auto-populated through this process.

TRAC-IT Update 2023-12-22

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

I have one quick update to pass along. SSG has deployed the first enhancement that will improve visibility to the service plan history and address IFSP Review print template requests. When you complete the IFSP Review task, the IFSP Review print template will now include:

  • The information you entered as part of the task (e.g., reason for the review, narrative description of changes made, attendees, etc.);
  • The rest of the IFSP with any service or outcome updates you made during the review; and
  • The transition pages. 

When you complete the task, the IFSP Review print template also will be added to the Documents tab.

SSG is continuing to work on service plan history and insurance history enhancements. Watch for further updates in early January.

Wishing you joy this holiday season, 

Kyla

TRAC-IT Update 2023-11-09

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

As we approach our December 11, 2023 Phase II launch for TRAC-IT, I have a number of important updates and reminders.

Training: Training sessions for full implementation of TRAC-IT begin on Monday, November 13. For a full list of sessions and registration links, please see previous TRAC-IT Updates or our Monthly Infant & Toddler Connection of Virginia Update for November. All sessions will be recorded and available in the TRAC-IT webinar section of our website.

Fiscal Enhancements and Billing Extracts:

  • The recording from the 10/26/23 webinar on fiscal enhancements and the new billing extracts is posted here. The PPT slides and Q&A from that webinar are available with the recording.
  • The fiscal enhancements and new billing extracts will go live in TRAC-IT on Sunday night (11/12/23).
  • During the webinar, there were questions and concerns about needing to populate the monthly cap field as $0 for children with Medicaid to have those children pull to the service coordination billing extract. We have identified a solution that will eliminate that requirement for current and future children. This is a behind-the-scenes, automated process that will check for a completed family cost share agreement instead of requiring a value in the monthly cap field. The solution is targeted for deployment late next week. Until then, the service coordination extract will not be fully accurate if you have not entered a monthly cap.

Other Enhancements/Fixes Now Available:

  • You can edit event dates on event tasks for all events except Assessment for Service Planning (coming later).
  • The Early Intervention Service Coordination Plan task no longer gets cancelled if the child is discharged because the parent declined eligibility or the child was found ineligible.
  • The Declining Services print template will now pull the date of the most recent IFSP.
  • An optional field has been added on service logs to capture the contact method (e.g., in person, telehealth, phone, etc.) using a dropdown menu

Enhancements Under Development:

  • IFSP service plan history
  • Ability to run and save customized/personalized reports from the Client Extract, including ability to run those based on a date range

Kyla

TRAC-IT Update 2023-10-19

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

An updated Data Dictionary, Schema, Response Schema, and Sample Input XML file have been released and are posted in the TRAC-IT Documents section of our website, TRAC-IT Documents — Infant & Toddler Connection of Virginia (itcva.online). The changes to these documents were driven by user feedback, and none of these changes represent new required fields.

Making goals on contact notes optional: Because matching goal statements on contact notes exactly to the goal statements on the IFSP in TRAC-IT posed a significant challenge to agencies attempting EHR uploads of contact notes, we have decided to make goals an optional field on contact notes. That means that contact notes uploaded from an EHR will be accepted even if they have no goal(s) or the goal provided does not match the wording on the IFSP. Goals also will be optional on contact notes for those directly entering contact notes in TRAC-IT. However, it’s very easy to include goals when directly entering a contact note in TRAC-IT since the goals are provided and the user can just check the one(s) worked on during the session.

  • Updates in Data Dictionary to row 225 for field name “progresses” – changed “Required on 12/11” to No
  • Removed error message “progress is required”

Adding new optional field Method on contact notes and corresponding value set Contact Note Method: This method field can be used to indicate how a person participated in an event (i.e., telehealth, phone, email, etc). This optional field was added to meet billing needs in some local systems.

  • New field noteMethodCode on Service Log, row 223 of the Data Dictionary
  • New value set in Value Sets tab
  • Field added to Schema and sample XML file

Re-adding Workaround as reason for late: Because contact notes are required in TRAC-IT beginning 12/11/23, we had removed Workaround as a choice in the reason for late start of service dropdown list. Recognizing that there might be some initial delays in entering/uploading contact notes as users adjust to full implementation, we have added Workaround back to the value set during this period of transition.

  • Update to “Reason If Late” value set in Value Sets tab

Adding a few more ICD 10 codes: A few more ICD 10 codes have been added based on local requests that came in through the Support Desk since the last update.

  • Added to ICD 10 code tab of the Data Dictionary

TRAC-IT Update 2023-05-11

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

This week’s TRAC-IT updates include information about EHR uploads, newly scheduled user education hours over the summer, updated timelines and Help Desk metrics from April.

User Education Hours – SSG will hold three User Education sessions over the summer to address common questions they receive and answer other questions you may have. These will be an excellent opportunity for veteran TRAC-IT users and newer users to increase their confidence as we move toward Phase II implementation in December. During each session, SSG will complete a walk-through of a task(s) in TRAC-IT that users often have questions about and then respond to questions on that or other topics. Session dates and times are as follows:

  • June 27, 2:30 – 3:30
  • July 19, 2:30-3:30
  • August 22, 2:30 – 3:30

You can register using this link and only need to register once to participate in all three sessions: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2855613547770411611

Those who register will email receive reminders before each session.

Updated Timelines – While the Phase II launch date of December 11, 2023, has not changed, some of the interim timelines have been adjusted and are reflected in this updated graphic.

EHR Upload Topics & Reminders

  • The May 2nd EHR Office Hour recording and Q&A, which includes questions received by the SSG EHR email box since the previous office hour, have been posted to our website at https://www.itcva.online/trac-it-webinars.
  • Reminder: If you plan to pursue an EHR upload into TRAC-IT for December 11, 2023, please email VATRACIT.FileCertification@ssg-llc.com no later than May 19th to confirm that your organization intends to participate.
  • Will this be the only opportunity for agencies to develop and test an EHR upload file? No. We will survey agencies again in January 2024 to determine who is interested in pursuing an EHR upload at that point and what their projected timeline is. Based on that information, we will identify another EHR file testing and certification window.

April Help Desk Metrics – Here are some snapshots of April Help Desk ticket topics and the latest 3-month trends.