10/15/2020

Today's COVID-19 Report

Friday, October 16, 2020

Here are the latest need-to-know updates for Friday, October 16 regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Troubleshooting the long-term care visitation dashboard portal

Through the Enhanced Information Dissemination and Collection (EIDC) system, all providers should have received the registration instructions for the new visitation dashboard. The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) provided the troubleshooting info below.

• Registrants must use Google Chrome to complete the visitation information. Per ODH, this is the most frequently reported issue in registration. 
• Access to the visitation app in the OHID account is not instantaneous. Each request must be manually entered by ODH.
• Facilities do not need to come back to the portal to report on the actual number of visitations that occurred.
• The number of visitation spots available is for that time period. For example, Mondays 8:00 am to 4:00 pm would have 20 visitation spots; a slot for each timeslot does NOT need to be entered. ODH is working on getting the window visitation adjusted to allow for a single entry, all-day visitation.
• Families and Friends will only see the details of your visitation program; they do not sign-up for visitation through this site.
• A facility only needs to change their information when the status of the facility changes, e.g. an outbreak has occurred. 

If you have questions please email Rebecca.Sandholdt@odh.ohio.gov and CC Ricky.Hoover@odh.ohio.gov and Jill.Shonk@odh.ohio.gov. Do not email CCURT or the LICCERT account and do not call the Coronavirus call center. These options will delay assistance being provided.

ODH holding Q&A on POC test reporting today from 2:00-3:00PM

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has published updated guidance on COVID-19 laboratory testing reporting requirements on the Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR) website.

Today's live event will be held from 2:00-3:00PM and will provide a demo of the new authenticated web portal to allow any entity performing COVID-19 testing to securely submit ELR files of line level results to ODH using a file upload tool. 

An agenda for the call includes:

• Demo of newly deployed authenticated web portal for ELR File Uploads;
• Review of Ohio custom CSV file specifications; and
• Discuss COVID-19 reporting changes for line level testing results

Also being reviewed will be the ODH custom CSV file specifications for submitting ELR results and discuss the on-boarding process for laboratories and facilities. 

Please note that there is no audio call-in information available, so you must have computer audio to listen. This live event will be recorded and made available after the event. To participate, please click here.

Nursing home testing for the week of October 19

Last night, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) shared the updated schedule for state supported nursing facility testing for specimen collection (swabbing) dates from October 19 to October 25.

A few notes on the updated schedule:

• Please carefully review the updated schedule on the FIRST TAB.
• Information about required routine testing frequency (per Center of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and state requirements) by county, as well as state-supported testing frequency available by county, can be found on the SECOND TAB. This data was last pulled on October 5 and will be updated again on October 19.
• The CMS and Ohio Public Health Advisory System data will be pulled next Monday, October 19 and will be used to schedule testing for the following week, October 26.

Please use this electronic survey to provide updates for your facility for state supported regarding ANY TIME you need to report ANY of the following changes:

• Change in outbreak status (start state supported testing for a new outbreak, end state supported testing after the conclusion of an outbreak).
• Change in need for state support (opt-in/opt-out).
• Change in need for supplies.

OBM: Assisted living must enter licensure number for CRF payments

As previously reported in the LeadingAge Ohio COVID-19 Report, the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) and Office of Budget & Management (OBM) have identified those providers who are eligible for coronavirus relief funds (CRF), but have not yet applied. Yesterday, Administration officials announced the deadline has been extended to October 30, and shared an updated list of providers who have yet to apply for funds.

Many of the outstanding payments were those for the per-bed assisted living, and upon reaching out to members, LeadingAge Ohio learned that many had received denials for their assisted living applications. The problem appears to be that those assisted living providers who also participate in Medicaid had entered their Medicaid number into the specified field. ODM has since clarified that in order to be paid, assisted living providers should enter their licensure number into that field. If the assisted living provider is also anticipating a MyCare payment, they will need to complete a separate application with the Medicaid number in that field.

Any questions related to this process may be directed to Susan Wallace at swallace@leadingagoehio.org.

eServices Scheduled Outage

Palmetto GBA will conduct a scheduled outage on the eService provider portal on Saturday, October 17. Certain eServices functions will be affected. The outage is expected to last from 1:00 pm Saturday until 8:00 am Sunday.

Services Impacted: Review Choice Demonstration functionality in eServices will be unavailable beginning Saturday, October 17 at 1:00 pm through Sunday, October 18 at 8:00 am.

LeadingAge Need to Know: COVID-19 – October 16, 2020

LeadingAge shares the latest coronavirus news and resources with members twice each weekday. This morning's update featured news on a CEO gathering at this year's Annual Meeting Virtual Experience.

Check out the full report here.

Questions

Please send all questions to COVID19@leadingageohio.org. Additionally, members are encouraged to visit the LeadingAge Ohio COVID-19 Working Group facebook group to pose questions to peers and share best practices. LeadingAge is continuing its daily calls for all members.  To participate in these daily online updates, members should register here.  

LeadingAge Ohio is working to ensure that the information in our daily alerts, on our website, and all coronavirus-related communications is as accurate as possible. However, LeadingAge Ohio makes no guarantees about the accuracy of the information.