Referral
12/14/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-12-14

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

I’m pleased to report that Phase 2 (full implementation) of TRAC-IT launched as scheduled on Monday, December 11; and there have been no reports of technical issues. The SSG Support Desk has indicated the volume of support tickets has been steady but not super high. The majority have been login questions from new users and provider agencies and questions about newly required fields.

Tip: Learning Opportunities in Service Coordination Outcome – One of the newly required fields is Learning Opportunities, which appears on each outcome. Several users have questioned what to write in this field for the service coordination outcome and why it is required for that outcome. We agree that this field should not be required for the service coordination outcome and will be working with SSG to change that. In the meantime, feel free to enter “Not applicable” or similar wording in this field.

We recognize the amount of work that has been necessary at the local level to fully implement TRAC-IT. Thank you!

12/07/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-12-07

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

Please note the following TRAC-IT updates and reminders.

Reminder: December 11th Full Implementation:  The process for deploying the required fields for full implementation will begin as early as 9PM ET on Sunday 12/10 to ensure TRAC-IT is ready for use on Monday morning (12/11).

Enhancements: Several enhancements went live in TRAC-IT last Friday night. 

  • Practitioner credentials are now included on the IFSP print template. 
  • Practitioner credentials have been added to the signature line in Contact Notes. 
  • An “Excluded” tab has been added to the Service Coordination Billing Extract and lists the children with Medicaid who did not pull to the SC billing extract for that month.  
  • Participation type has been added to IFSPs to designate when someone participated electronically or in writing. 
  • The Contact Note field that appears within tasks has been renamed to Communication Log Detail to better explain its purpose and avoid confusion with the actual contact note tasks. 

Additional Training Recordings and Documents Posted: The recording, slides and Q&A document associated with the IFSP required fields training have been posted here. The recording and materials for the contact note training are coming soon.  

12/01/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-12-01

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

Happy December! Thank you for all you’re doing to prepare for full implementation of TRAC-IT on December 11, 2023. Please note the following updates, tips and reminders.

Tip – Lost Medicaid Coverage: If you find a child with a Medicaid insurance record has lost Medicaid coverage, do not uncheck the enrolled in Medicaid EI benefit box.  Instead, end the Medicaid record with the date coverage was lost.  Only uncheck the Medicaid EI benefit box when the child has active Medicaid coverage but the EI benefit has dropped.

Data Dictionary:  A new data dictionary has been posted to the TRAC-IT documents section of our website. The new version reflects our decision to make five contact note fields optional that were previously required unless the contact note document itself was uploaded to TRAC-IT.  These fields are the following: clinical notes, ongoing assessment, suggestions (joint planning), family-caregiver update and participants. While these fields are optional to complete in TRAC-IT, the requirement for contact notes to include these fields has not changed. If you choose not to include those fields in TRAC-IT by either populating the fields or uploading your contact note in the document section, you must have complete contact notes that include this information in your local record.

Enhancements:  The following additional enhancements were released in TRAC-IT this week.

  • When discharging from the Schedule Appointments task, you should now receive a Discharge task where you can enter the discharge date and reason.
  • In addition to the practitioner and local system manager, Provider Agency Managers/Supervisors will now receive expiring EI certification notifications for their staff.  

December 11th Full Implementation:  The process for deploying the required fields for full implementation will begin as early as 9PM ET on Sunday 12/10 to ensure TRAC-IT is ready for use on Monday morning (12/11).

Training Recordings and Resources: As they become available, recordings, PPTs and Q&As for each November training session are being posted at TRAC-IT Webinars — Infant & Toddler Connection of Virginia (itcva.online).

Kyla

11/17/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-11-17

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

Here are the latest TRAC-IT updates and reminders.

Training

Sandbox – The Sandbox (training environment) has been updated to reflect the fields that will be required starting 12/11/23 so users can practice and become more familiar with the changes. 

Medicaid EI Benefit Start Date – For children enrolled in the Medicaid EI benefit on or after 11/13/2023, the start date for the Medicaid EI benefit will appear on the bottom of the child’s insurance record in TRAC-IT.  You no longer need to email Keishia White to find out the start date. 

Enhancements: 

  • A column has been added to the Service Coordination productivity extract to indicate whether the activity was billable.  
  • The solution that will eliminate the requirement to populate the monthly cap field as $0 for children with Medicaid to have those children pull to the service coordination billing extract is on target to deploy tonight. As a reminder this behind-the-scenes, automated process will address the issue for current and future children. 
  • Service Plan history and Insurance history are among the additional enhancements planned. 

I hope you have a nice weekend!

Kyla

10/17/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-10-12

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

As we move closer to releasing the updated fiscal/billing extracts in a few weeks and then fully implementing TRAC-IT’s required fields on December 11, 2023, we have identified a few steps you can take now to help ensure TRAC-IT users are set up for success and all enrollments have the necessary datapoints. In addition to attending the training sessions in November, you may wish to use this opportunity to familiarize your team with the upcoming changes and update any Standard Operating Procedures or processes your organization may have to facilitate a smoother transition in December.

User Set-Up Tips

  • If providers in your local system are not entering information in TRAC-IT at this time and will be doing so on December 11, 2023, we suggest getting the providers logging into TRAC-IT and getting used to entering information as soon as possible.
  • If a provider agency will be responsible for directly entering or completing an EHR upload of contact notes into TRAC-IT, the Local System must grant then access to each relevant enrollment using the Add Provider ad hoc task.

Enrollment Tips

Tip 1: Begin entering required fields ahead of time.

  • You may wish to consult v5 (2023-08-23) version of the Data Dictionary for a comprehensive list of fields that will be required as of December 11, 2023. See column E: Required 12/11/2023.
  • In preparation for December 11, 2023, Local Systems, Provider Agencies and Independent Contractors can begin entering required fields ahead of time.

Tip 2: Clean up data for existing records: Spoken and written language.

  • There are a few fields that can be updated any time using the Update Child / Guardian Information task in the ad hoc task list. These include Primary Spoken Language, Primary Written Language. Local Systems may wish to update existing enrollments with these fields to ensure data quality. The Client Extract can be a useful tool to identify enrollments that may be missing a Spoken or Written Language.

Tip 3: Clean up data for existing records: hearing and vision results.

Moving forward, hearing and vision results are required before the initial IFSP task can be completed. For existing enrollment records where a child has an IFSP or is already receiving services, and the child does not have a hearing or vision screening/result, the child’s record can be updated using the Hearing Screening and Vision Screening ad hoc tasks.

Tip 4: Clean up data for existing records: Race cannot be unknown children with IFSPs.

Another field that can be updated ahead of time is ‘Child Race’. As of December 11, 2023, a child’s race cannot be listed as Unknown once the child has an IFSP. As a data cleanup effort on existing enrollments where the child already has an IFSP developed, local systems can perform the following steps:

  • Pull Client Extract
  • Filter Status Column to see ‘IFSP’ and ‘Services’
  • THEN filter Child Race column for ‘Unknown’
  • Within each identified enrollment use the Update Child/Guardian Information ad hoc task, select the child’s race

Tip 5: Contact Notes will be required and are used to calculate Timeliness of IFSP Services.

Local systems and provider agencies can begin entering contact notes for events and services using the system generated tasks in TRAC-IT.

  • Entered contact notes will allow agencies to effectively utilize the billing extracts.
  • Contact notes are also used to determine timely start of services.

Note: For providers who are uploading contact notes as PDFs to the documents section, this will not satisfy the condition of entering contact notes starting December 11, 2023; nor will these notes meet timeliness checks for start of new services or be available in the billing extracts.

Fiscal Tips

Tip 6: Clean up insurance records.

Prior to December 11th a new insurance dashboard will be available that will flag enrollments with ambiguous or overlapping insurances. (Exact date will be communicated in a follow up email.)

  • Existing Insurance records should be checked to ensure ambiguous and overlapping insurances are rectified.
  • Users with the Insurance role can delete inaccurate insurance and add in correct insurance as appropriate.
  • Payer priority should be checked to ensure insurances are listed as Primary > Secondary > Tertiary accordingly.

Tip 7: Update health status questions (HSQ)/health status indicators.

For service coordination activities to be billable, the system will now check to ensure an HSQ has been completed for the child within the past 7 months. Please be sure to start capturing this information through the Health Status Question ad hoc task.

10/04/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-10-04

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

Please note the following TRAC-IT Updates.

Phase II Implementation Training: Please use the links provided below to register for the training opportunities that apply to you as you continue planning for the December 11, 2023, Phase II implementation of TRAC-IT. Training will be conducted virtually. All trainings will be recorded for those who are unable to participate in the live event or wish to refer to the material later.

Enhancements – What’s New 

  • Certificate numbers on EI Certification print templates (since numbers can be needed for provider enrollment with DMAS) 
  • Text boxes have been made bigger on the contact note edit screen, so it is easier to see the full text and make edits.  
  • Expected to release tonight (10/4) – Ability to select the discipline of an event attendee when the practitioner has more than one discipline. 

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for Fiscal Enhancements: UAT for fiscal enhancements and the new billing extracts will take place the week of October 16 with these new features expected to launch soon after. 

Coming soon: Tips on getting ready for full implementation on December 11, including what you could be entering in TRAC-IT now to make it easier to enter contact notes and use the billing extracts on December 11.

09/14/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-09-14

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

I only have a couple of brief TRAC-IT updates this week.:

  • The system upgrade to version 23.1 was completed successfully last night in the live TRAC-IT system.
  • The sandbox environment will undergo the same upgrade on Friday, 9/15, and will be unavailable from 8 AM – 4 PM that day.

Kyla

09/08/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-09-08

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

Please note the following TRAC-IT updates and reminders.

Enhancements: What’s New – In preparation for the enhanced billing extracts, TRAC-IT now allows users to enter and save multiple billing numbers. These are the billing numbers assigned and used by an organization serving that child. Since multiple agencies might be providing services for one child, this allows TRAC-IT to capture all relevant billing numbers. The TRAC-IT User Manual has been updated to reflect this change and provide instructions for entering billing numbers.

Enhancements: Coming Soon

  • Certificate numbers on EI Certification print templates (since numbers can be needed for provider enrollment with DMAS)
  • Ability to edit event dates on event tasks for all tasks except Assessment for Service Planning (coming later)

Referral Outcomes by Referral Source Report – The error in how children who “will receive services” were pulling to this report has been corrected. The report is available in TRAC-IT and working properly.

TRAC-IT Platform Update – The technology platform for TRAC-IT will be updated to version 23.1 on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. This update will occur outside of business hours, and there is a message in the banner of TRAC-IT alerting users that the system will be unavailable from 8PM – 12AM on that date. For more information about this update, please see the 8/23/23 TRAC-IT email.

Storage – Since this was a topic in a recent regional meeting, I want to assure you that we will not run out of storage in TRAC-IT for data fields or uploaded documents. SSG uses modern cloud architecture with robust redundancy, auto-scaling, and virtually unlimited cloud storage. They have automatic monitoring and alerts in place to notify them of any need to scale up storage.

Kyla

08/23/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-08-23

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

Please note the following TRAC-IT updates and reminders.

Reminder about PII – Please do not send personally identifiable information (PII), like the child’s name, when communicating with the Support Desk.

Enhancements: What’s New 

  • The following have been added to the dropdown list of service coordination activities:
    • Facilitating initial IFSP meeting 
    • Facilitating annual IFSP meeting 
  • You can now indicate if a service coordination activity was …
    • A family contact 
    • Conducted with the child present 
    • Not billable 

Enhancements: Coming Soon – You will be able to edit event dates on event tasks for all tasks except Assessment for Service Planning (coming later) 

Referral Outcomes by Referral Source Report – There is an error in how children who “will receive services” are pulling to this report. SSG is working to correct the report logic, and we expect the report will be fixed by next week. 

TRAC-IT Platform Update – TRAC-IT runs on a technology platform called Casetivity, and SSG plans to deploy a new release soon (similar to how our cellphones get updates). Casetivity 23.1 brings a variety of features together that improve end user experience and set the stage for future capabilities. One update includes easier search/data entry with type-ahead and field editing abilities. An end user will need less time to find or enter data in structured fields (such as drop-downs). Improved cascading merge logic allows for better deduplication. Casetivity 23.1 also includes important bug fixes and regular security updates. This update will occur outside of business hours, and there will be a message in the banner of TRAC-IT alerting users a few days before this update will occur. 

Updated Data Dictionary – SSG has provided an updated Data Dictionary to align the field names to the schema names and to add a new tab that outlines the schema’s entity relationships. These changes are to assist those building EHR uploads in referencing information across documents. There is no change to required fields or any other aspect of TRAC-IT. The updated Data Dictionary has been posted to the TRAC-IT documents section of our website: TRAC-IT Documents — Infant & Toddler Connection of Virginia (itcva.online) 

08/01/2023

TRAC-IT Update 2023-07-27

Local System Managers, Contract Agencies and Independent Contractors:

This TRAC-IT update includes a user tip and some enhancement updates.

User Tip: Intake and IFSP Fields – The Support Desk has received some recent questions/concerns about IFSP information being overwritten. The issue occurs when these steps happen in this order:

  1. The Initial IFSP Meeting and Intake tasks are open and available at the same time.
  2. User enters information in the Initial IFSP task in the same fields the Intake task will populate when completed and SAVES the IFSP Meeting task.
  3. User completes the Intake Visit task, leaving these fields blank:
  4. The information in the IFSP is overwritten by these blank fields

To avoid this situation, users should really enter this information in the Intake Visit task vs directly into the IFSP for a couple of reasons:

  1. TRAC-IT is expecting the Intake Visit task to be completed before the IFSP task – so the information entered in the Intake will overwrite the fields in the IFSP.
  2. The information from the Intake visit will populate into the IFSP so users will not need to double enter information. You do not need to have complete information in these areas at Intake. You can just take some relevant notes from parent report or observation during the Intake visit. That information then can be added to, edited, etc. at the IFSP meeting.
  3. When leaving these fields blank, TRAC-IT does not populate the Intake Visit print template or electronic copy of the intake with any information.

Enhancements

  • Later this week – The dropdown menu for service coordination activity will include two new options:
    • Facilitating initial IFSP meeting
    • Facilitating annual IFSP meeting
  • Coming soon –
    • You will be able to edit event dates on the event tasks
    • You will be able to indicate if a service coordination activity was …
      • a family contact
      • conducted with the child present
      • not billable.

These new fields for service coordination notes will help us get ready for the enhanced billing extracts that are coming in the fall.