Happy Thursday! Enjoy your NCMS Morning Rounds.

June 10, 2021

Physicians Still The Top Choice For Patients According To National Tracking Poll 

Conducted between April 29-May 2, 2021, the Morning Consult’s National Tracking Poll sampled 2,200 adults on health care usage and trust. The interviews were conducted online and the data was weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race and region. In general, the study found adults were more likely to say they would select a physician’s office over a retail health clinic or an urgent care center for a variety of health care services, though there were significant differences by the age of the respondent.

  • 59 percent of adults said they trust their primary care doctor a lot, while 24 percent said they trust the healthcare industry, and only 15 percent said they place a lot of trust in retail health clinics.
  • 70 percent of adults would select a physician’s office for wellness checkups, and 67 percent for blood work, while 62 percent would select a physician’s office for diagnosing and treating common illnesses and 56 percent for vaccinations.
  • 84 percent of adults said cost of services is somewhat or very important when it comes to retail health clinics.
  • There was a significant difference by age of almost 30 percent between adults under 35 and those 65 or older when it came to their preference for getting a wellness visit, treating a common illness, and getting blood work done at a physician’s office. Almost half of adults under 35 said they would go to a physician’s office for this care, while more than four in five adults 65 or older would go to a physician’s office.

 Click here to view the full report.

Reminder: Electronic Visit Verification Implementation – Claim Adjudication Based on EVV Data Began June 1, 2021

 NC Medicaid ended the pay and report period for Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) claims on May 31, 2021. Claims submitted for Dates of Service June 1, 2021 and after will be required to validate EVV data prior to claims adjudication. There are two edits for EVV that will be applied if the claim submitted does not have the required EVV data. Once applied, these edits will pend for an identified number of days to allow for the issue to be resolved prior to denial of the claim.

 For claim lines with a Date of Service on or after 6/01/2021, the edit will pend for seven days then cut back units to the sum of the verified units.

Providers utilizing Sandata, the State’s EVV solution, should ensure that all visits are verified in the EVV portal prior to submitting claims. A visit with the status of verified, means there are no exceptions. Clearing or resolving all exceptions on an incomplete visit updates the visit status to ‘verified.’ Providers utilizing an alternate EVV (Alt EVV) solution may confirm verified visits with their vendor and may also view visits in the Sandata Aggregator.

For more information about EVV, please visit the NC Medicaid EVV webpage.

June is National COVID-19 Vaccine Month of Action

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “We Can Do This” COVID-19 Community Corps has kicked off a month-long mobilization effort to get our communities vaccinated by July 4th!  The National Vaccine Month of Action is a collaborative effort with thousands of national organizations, community-based partners and everyday people, serving as trusted messengers, listening to people’s concerns, and helping them make informed decisions about COVID-19 vaccinations.

There are plenty of ways to take action near you or virtually. You can find more opportunities to participate here.

 In the News

CDC: Milder, Shorter Illness For Fully Vaccinated People Who Develop Breakthrough Infections, Becker’s Hospital Review, 6-8-21

Learning Opportunity

Carolina Medical Home Network (CMHN ) Care Management Training, June 14 @ 8 am – June 22 @ noon

Due to COVID-19 and the need to minimize costs, Carolina Medical Home Network (CMHN) will be offering an initial Care Management training in multiple half-day sessions June 14, 2021-June 22, 2021 from 8am-12pm. The training team will incorporate approaches that encourage hands-on learning and application of material where applicable in this virtual environment.

To support targeted learning, breakout sessions will be offered to tailor the content for the roles of care manager and care coordinator.

The richness of the content will ensure all care managers and care coordinators are fully prepared to succeed in the landscape of Managed Medicaid. Attendees will administer a pre and post assessment to evaluate their competency for each subject covered during this training.

There is a cost of $275 for the training and participation is mandatory for Care Managers and Care Coordinators within the first six months of go-live.

Click here for more information and to get tickets.

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