As practice managers, Medicaid providers and the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) itself held its breath, on July 1, DHHS launched its new Medicaid claims processing system, NCTracks. While DHHS’s own predictions about how seamlessly the changeover would occur were less than optimistic, the worst case scenario of a total failure of the system did not come to pass. Still, many practices were unable to access the system at first and were frustrated by hour-plus hold times at the Call Center set up by the system’s contractor CSC to handle complaints.
Now, more than a week later, the new system has processed more than 2 million claims, according to DHHS, and the major kinks are being worked out. Hold times are still long at the Call Center, and new glitches seem to be uncovered each day. CSC and DHHS staff have been working around the clock and over the July 4 holiday to address the problems as they come up.
To advocate for NCMS members experiencing problems with the system, NCMS developed an on-line “Trouble Log” prior to the launch day. Members are asked to log their issues and NCMS staff is then able to pick out patterns of problems to relay to CSC for correction. DHHS Chief Information Officer Joe Cooper expressed his department’s appreciation for our help in a letter to Conor Brockett, NCMS Associate General Counsel on July 2.
So far, the Trouble Log is receiving between 20 and 30 entries each day. Members are encouraged to contact CSC’s Call Center directly at 1-800-688-6696 for correction of their specific complaint, and to log it on the NCMS Trouble Log, so we are able to aggregate the most common issues and report them as a group to CSC.
at 2:55 pm
PS: My office manager has already been been on hold with CSC numerous times, and we also have not had any claims paid since the end of June.
at 9:46 am
I have called NCTracks 4 times, waiting anywhere from 65 minutes to 94 minutes. Multiple tickets later, I still have not gotten any answers to our problems. Issues range from Carolina Acces information missing and eligibility not working to taxonomy info incorrect to prior authorizations unavailable! Not sure why the call center is open longer hours..they do not seem to be able to answer any questions with a true answer. We are a large specialty practice and this is frustrating!
at 9:40 pm
From day one it has been a disaster. We wait on the phone for hours only to be told it is a system error. We can’t change in of our provider information. All of our taxonomy’s were changed even though it was corrected when we checked them. We are having to enter every claim manual and depending on the system at that moment whether the claim is approved or not. We received 767 pages of denials for taxonomy. The remits are awful to read. Carolina Access is listed on the voucher by each patient with a small dollar amount. We can’t even change our taxonomy or any of our provider information in the system. No one has called back on any of our tickets that we have received from calls. They should have given all the students a summer job answering the phones because all of the representatives state they are new and they don’t know how to help us. I have 60 plus hours this week on this system and haven’t gotten anywhere. Something needs to be done before offices are bankrupt.
at 3:28 pm
Changed our group taxonomy in our practice management system to match NC Tracks group taxonomy and submitted a claim in the NC Tracks portal. The claim denied due to incorrect group taxonomy! Per NC Tracks customer service, the single specialty taxonomy code was denied due to a technical issue at NC Tracks. Tried the multi-specialty taxonomy code on a claim in the NC Tracks claim portal and the claim processed without a taxonomy denial.
at 4:08 pm
I have a terminated provider that I can’t re-enroll because his old address is hard coded on the app and can’t be changed, so I can’t proceed with his app. Have a provider that is terminated due to inactivity that I’ve re-registerd but no re-enrollment app is available, and you can’t start from scratch because you get told their NPI is already on file and to complete a re-enrollment app. Have another provider registed by someone else, that I need to link to my group but can’t access his info, and was told I’d need to get with his administrator for access. Have 4 providers that were dropped halfway thru their enrollnment process because July 1 came around and NC couldn’t figure out how to merge the info to the new system and told me I needed to start over and pay the fees again. Have a couple of providers that are registered but no apps are available, and when you call in and wait for 3 days to talk to someone, they tell you there’s a problem with the auth code, or your internet isn’t the right version, or they just don’t know, and they’ll send a helpdesk ticket, and someone will call you back (still waiting!), and they don’t know when it will be resolved. Meanwhile, dollars are creeping up and up….it’s something new every day.
at 3:32 pm
I am the chief coder for 5 practices and this NC Tracks has been a disaster! I had all my providers ready in March 2013, yet when I billed claims on July 1, this taxonomy issue came up for all the claims and none of my providers have been paid. Nothing was said about the Group Taxonomy issue before and no other insurance requires it, so why does NC Medicaid? This is a disaster for my clients, who see a lot of Medicaid patients. I have waited for 2 hours at a time to talk to NC Tracks but nothing seems to be clarified or done. One of my providers has another provider’s information put into their profile, and NC Tracks did that, it was not what we submitted. It seems that whatever can go wrong, HAS gone wrong. There was nothing wrong with HP, they paid promptly and regularly. I don’t know any doctors that have been paid. I don’t understand the Governor etc saying that there are no problems when this is beyond dysfunctional. This is causing financial hardship and it is almost like they want providers to close. Something needs to be said about this situation in the media so the actual TRUTH comes out.
at 10:54 am
At this point I am angry. I received a number of emails from NC Tracks be prepared for the launch on July 1, 2013. I was prepared April 2013 for this launch. We have only received a $230.00 payment, which I cannot access the remit for. I have called into the call center several times the past 2 weeks only to sit on hold for over an hour and be told the same thing they see all of our claims and they will be paid on 07-17-2013 yet no payment has been received. I called into the call center once again this morning sit on hold for over a hour and was hung up on! When calling back I received a message they could not answer my call at this time. We cannot obtain PCP information, and website malfunctions prevent us from obtaining any information. This is ridiculous how long are providers going to see Medicaid patients without reimbursement or I guess the true question is how long can providers afford to see Medicaid patients without reimbursement.
at 9:52 am
Multiple calls for help just to get tracks program to accept practice address. Hours on hold only to be told issue would be kicked up to tier 2. That was a week ago still no help and it appears no way to get any.
at 3:52 pm
Our provider number has been merged with two unknown to us providers. We cannot get them off of our application and we cannot proceed until NCTRACKS IT department can resolve the problem. Our registration has been frozen. WE are waiting for help. We registered back in April and we did not receive any feedback from NCTRACKS indicating any problems until we tried to file claims.
at 2:39 pm
Much information in our group enrollment form is wrong & the taxonomy is wrong. The system does not allow you to get the info corrected, it puts you in an endless loop that you can never submit the corrected information. It is maddening. Have spent 4 hours trying, the phone is now on recording that calls can’t be answered. The webinar hosted on Friday locked folks out, so you couldn’t participate, could only handle 50 people. We are holding our claims, this affects cash flow for our practice. Today received a notice about updating taxonomy codes, when you click on the link for “Taxonomy Tutorial” the webpage errors out. This has been ridiculous. Many providers in Asheville that I’ve spoken with are angry and frustrated. We all feel that the state has been unresponsive.
at 10:21 am
Now they say Internet Explorer 9 is required–not 8 and not 10. They can’t say about Chrome, Firefox and other choices.
at 8:24 am
They promised to get back to us yesterday. Did not and they aren’t answering phone.
at 2:48 pm
We received 115 pages of denials due to the taxonomy code. In addition, you can look up eligibility on NC Tracks, but it doesn’t give you the most important information, which is whether a patient has regular or Carolina Access coverage. We are a specialty practice so we have to make sure the referring doctor is the patient’s designated primary doctor or our claims will reject. After an 1 1/2 hour wait on hold we were told we will have to call the AVR line for all eligibility until this problem is resolved??!!
at 8:23 am
Our remittance stated we used the wrong taxonomy
code and they have us listed as a multi specialty
when in fact we are single specialty and not group. The drop down in the enrollment does not give you an option to change this information. All of our claims were denied for that reason.
at 8:15 am
We just 50 pages of EOBs denied because the taxonomy number was incorrect. Hours on the phone to reach someone who showed how to look up our number which had been changed to incorrect number. The rep had no idea how to correct their error. Put in ticket for someone to get back to us–no idea when we will hear.