Important Notices

• Holiday Hours: STI will operate on a modified schedule of 7am to 12:30 pm on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. After-hours Emergency support will remain available until 6pm for both of these days. STI will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. From all of us at STI, we wish you a safe and Happy Holiday Season!
• NCPDP Script Version 201701 Migration Deadline - January 1, 2020: The July 2019 update (fv 6.4.0) to ChartMaker 2018.2 introduced the latest electronic prescribing data format known as NCPDP 2017071. This format is what Medicare Part D requires as of January 01, 2020. If you are on file version 6.4.0 or higher, you can disregard this notice. However if you have not updated to the ChartMaker 2018.2 (fv6.4.0) version, or higher, of the ChartMaker Medical Suite, you will be out of compliance with Medicare Part D related to e-prescribing. Therefore, we recommend you upgrade to the latest version of the ChartMaker Medical Suite as soon as possible. If you have any questions regarding this deadline, please contact Clinical Software Support at: (800) 487-9135. For more information on this update, you can read the SureScripts article or visit the STI website.
• MIPS Attestation for 2019 - Attestation for the 2019 reporting year begins January 2, 2020. For more information visit the, Quality Payment Program website today.
• Patti Vanden Eykel Retirement - Many of you are already aware that Patti Vanden Eykel of our Customer Support department retired on July 31^st  of this year. Patti was an integral member of our Practice Manager support team here at STI.  Patti began her career at STI in 1994 providing support for the DOS system, the predecessor to the current ChartMaker® Medical Suite system. Over the past 25 years Patti earned the respect of you, our valued clients, who will miss the expert help and guidance she provided. Her fellow co-workers recognized Patti for her knowledge of the system and as someone who always went the extra mile to do the best job possible for our clients and her team members. Patti is dearly missed, but all of us here at STI wish her the best in her new career...retirement!

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Insurance News 

• New Medicare Card Ready for January 1, 2020 -  CMS removed the Social Security Number (SSN)-based Health Insurance Claim Numbers (HICNs) from all Medicare cards. As of January 1, 2020, Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBIs) will be used for all Medicare transactions such as billing, eligibility, status, and claim status. Please make sure you are receiving and processing claims with the MBI. For more information, read the CMS article here. 
• Medigap Plans: Starting January 1, 2020, Medigap plans sold to people who are new to Medicare will not be allowed to cover the Part B deductible. Because of this, Plans C and F will not be available to people who are newly eligible for Medicare on or after January 1, 2020. If you already have either of these 2 plans (or the high deductible version of Plan F), or are covered by one of these plans before January 1, 2020, you’ll be able to keep your plan. If you were eligible for Medicare before January 1, 2020, but not yet enrolled, you may be able to buy one of these plans. For more information, read here. 

Value Based Care

• Primary Care First - CMS is excited to announce that the Primary Care First Request for Applications (RFA) and Practice Application are now live. This is a voluntary, five-year alternative payment model to reduce Medicare spending by preventing avoidable inpatient hospital admissions, and improve quality and access to care for all beneficiaries, particularly those with complex chronic conditions and serious illness. For full details on the model, including information on model participation options, practice eligibility, and payment, visit their website today.

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Products, Services and New Features

• Chronic Care Management Solutions: STI is working with a care management provider to provide a program that works as an extension to your practice by dedicating nurse resources to chronically-ill patients. This program builds on your current physician relationship to enhance patient care, engage the patient in their own good health and deliver better health outcomes.For more information, register for our upcoming webinar on February 6, 2020.
• Real Time Prescription Benefits – The current release of the ChartMaker® Medical Suite (version 6.4.3) includes various updates to the prescribe medication functionality to provide real time prescription benefit information that allows you to view estimated cost, alternative medication options, pharmacy type options, and other formulary information based on the payer and pharmacy selected for the patient, when available. By providing specific estimated out-of-pocket cost for the selected therapy, as well as cost-effective medication options at the time of prescribing, prescribers and patients can now make more informed decisions that reduce payment obstacles and improve medication adherence. For more information, read our brochure.
• Prescription Drug Monitoring Program - Finding a solution to the opioid crisis is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the nation. The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) helps to combat this issue by equipping healthcare providers with easy access to data about their patients’ opioid prescriptions to help reduce opioid misuse. Learn more about the importance of using EHRs to access PDMP data in this HealthIT.gov blog post. Also, did you know that ChartMaker® Medical Suite has a PDMP interface? Learn more here.