2020 Finance Breakout Partner Agency Orientation December 13, 2019 1 - - PDF document
2020 Finance Breakout Partner Agency Orientation December 13, 2019 1 2018 2019 Core Agency Billing Wrap Up 2020 Invoice Template Changes Policy Changes Impacting Invoice Process Invoice Template Data Field Reminders
Partner Agency Orientation December 13, 2019
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2018‐2019 Core Agency Billing Wrap‐Up 2020 Invoice Template Changes Policy Changes Impacting Invoice Process Invoice Template Data Field Reminders Submission & Processing Timeline Held Transactions Finance Communications New Employees New System Update On The Horizon Questions & Answers
During today’s presentation we will discuss the following:
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For current funded agencies, all transactions from prior cycle must be submitted before billing for 2020 may begin You must e‐mail csffinance@stlouisco.com and your CSF finance contact after you receive your last invoice submission report
We recommend January 31, 2020 as your final submission date
Any held transactions will be reviewed and cleared when possible Final held transaction list will be sent one week after you notify of final submission with a one‐week response turnaround time We will use information provided in response to process final invoice submission, pushing through any cleared transactions After push through invoice is processed, you are eligible to receive 2020 invoice template
All information in this slide will also be sent via e‐mail to finance contacts for all currently funded partners.
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Site/School ID: As part of the invoice process, whenever possible we are now asking for the site at which the service is rendered. We requested this information as part of the application for funding. All sites will be consolidated into one list that is a living document. We recognize providing this information is not always possible in all circumstances, such as home‐based services and street outreach services. In these limited cases, we will assign a placeholder site ID. The site, school, and placeholder ID listing will be sent for review to agencies in early January to allow the opportunity to add additional feedback before billing
Warning Columns: Since CSF added new functions into the invoice template beginning in 2019, we have areas that notates when either: the quantity calculated does not match what you have entered in the quantity field and/or when the unit entered is incorrect for the length of time indicated. There will also be a warning column when it calculates a negative quantity, which can occur when AM/PM designation is entered incorrectly or if an end time is after midnight but not indicated. Materials Unit: New this cycle we are asking agencies to provide us cost basis information for materials units prior to billing. If you are awarded this unit in your contract, please provide the cost‐basis to us prior to billing. Unit Quantity Calculation: The function to calculate correct quantities that was added beginning in 2019 will remain. As a reminder, if you provide a unit quantity that does not match the calculated quantity, it will be overridden. These are for units measured in a
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period of time less than daily. If your agency specifically needs to calculate differently, contact your CSF Finance representative before Friday, February 1. Release Date: The 2020 invoice template will be sent via e‐mail to agency billing contacts beginning on Friday, February 14. For 2018‐2019 Core organizations that have not finalized their billing, you will not receive the template until the prior cycle is fully resolved.
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Not applicable if shelter location is
Use prior shelter as client’s last known address if applicable
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Use current placement ZIP code Notate St. Louis County Court custody in notes/remarks field Transaction may be held
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Formatting (all data fields) Project ID
Unique per program Agencies with multiple programs – ensure correct project ID
CPT Code
Only CPT codes on contract schedule A may be used Reviewed manually after invoice upload
Client ID
Same ID must be used for the same individual Group billed units can differentiate
Client ZIP Code
Residential ZIP code of client
Staff
Must be consistent No abbreviations (RN, MSW, etc.)
Formatting for All Data Fields: Commas are not permitted in any field of data, there must be a space in between minutes and the AM and PM designation. This is still common in the agency remarks field so please be sure to review prior to submitting. Project ID: This ID number is on your contract and is different for each program. Those agencies with multiple programs need to pay particular attention that the transaction line is using the correct project ID. CPT Code: These are also on your contract. Only those CPT codes that are on your contract may be used. Please make sure for any units that have different codes for the same service in varying intervals that you use the correct CPT code. This is checked manually after your invoice is uploaded and may cause a delay in processing of your payment. Client ID: This must be a unique identifier for individually billed service. This includes group units that are billed on an individual basis. Each client should be assigned a client ID that is used for all services rendered. This includes if they participate in multiple funded programs and if they leave and return to your agency. By doing this, CSF has a more accurate glimpse
a group can be approached differently. For example, presentations in a school may be a combination of a client ID number, school name, and/or class name in order to distinguish different presentation sessions happening simultaneously at a school. Client ZIP Code: This should be the client’s residential ZIP code. If they reside outside St.
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Louis County, their accurate ZIP code should still be used. Any additional information regarding residency that is needed to ensure eligibility should be placed in the agency remarks field. An example of this is VICC students. Please also note that if services are provided to an individual at a school, the individual’s ZIP code must be used, NOT that of the school. Staff: This field should be the staff member’s name. The method that you choose must be entered consistently. Once billing of 2018 services ends in early April, we will send a de‐ duplicated list to each agency and update prior billed records. We request that you do not include any abbreviations regarding staff qualifications such as RN, MSW, etc. These are reviewed at your site visit.
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Quantity
Positive values only, round to 2 decimal places
Start/End Times
Must include AM/PM designation
School ID
Do not use if service is not provided in a school
Grade
Used when service is provided in a school to an individual client Do not use if service is not provided in a school
Agency Remarks
Use to provide additional information only when needed
Record Locator
Required if client’s residential ZIP code is straddling Only use for straddling ZIP codes
Not needed for services rendered in a school
Quantity: Limited to positive values only. This should be rounded to the nearest two decimal places. Start/End Time: These fields must include AM/PM designation. For those services that begin and/or end after midnight, we ask that you use the actual times. As a reminder, there must be a space in between the minutes and the AM/PM designation. School ID: A school ID must be used if the service is provided in a school. If the service is not provided in a school, please leave this field blank. If you have submitted invoices for services in 2018 in which a school ID was entered when the service was not provided in a school, please contact your CSF Finance representative and we can remove from your prior billed
services so it is extremely important that this information is accurate. Grade: The grade is to be used when the service is provided in a school and that service is billed on an individual basis. For example, the grade is required when invoicing for school‐ based counseling because that is billed to the individual client, but it is not required for a presentation provided in a school because that is billed to the school as the client. The grade values used should only be those that are provided in the invoice template pull down menu. Agency Remarks: This field is entirely optional but can be used to provide any additional information that you believe is useful to the billing process. For example, if you have a VICC client that is provided services in a school‐based program and you use their residential ZIP
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code that is located outside St. Louis County, placing VICC student in the remark field explains to CSF staff why that transaction is eligible for billing. Record Locator: The record locator is to be used only for those clients whose ZIP code is in a designated straddling ZIP code. We may design audit triggers in our new system that look these up, so it is important that they are entered only when they are needed and in the correct format. Only St. Louis County record locators are permitted in this field.
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CSF may check for additional criteria that are not audited by the system after an invoice submission report is generated
We wanted to bring some additional timeline items to everyone’s attention. These are not new, as they have been included on contracts for the past two cycles. 90 Day Submission Rule: You must invoice for services within 90 days of when the services are rendered. This will be strictly enforced for all services billed in 2020. Please also note that the 90‐day submission rule does not apply to credit memos for CSF funded services as we understand those other sources of payment can take some time to complete. 45 Day Payment Processing: Per contract CSF has 45 days to process your invoice for
not the invoice date you enter on the invoice template. We process the invoices in the order they are received. There are several approval levels both within CSF and within the County, which is why this length of time may be needed. We check for additional criteria that are not audited by the system after an invoice submission report is generated: We perform data field integrity checks after the invoice submission report is generated. This can include checking rounding, missing/incorrect record locators, formatting, missing start/end times, invalid values in data fields.
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To provide some context for this process, we review on average in excess of 2,000 individual line items per month. Because of this volume, we may still be reviewing before you submit a subsequent invoice, which is why they are not always cleared by this point. Clear What We Can: As we manually review, those transactions that have sufficient information provided in all data fields are cleared. Once cleared, they will be included on the next invoice submission. Ask for additional information on those we cannot clear via e‐mail: Any transactions that we are unsure we will communicate to agencies directly. This will occur occasionally throughout the cycle, not necessarily on a monthly basis. If a transaction is determined to be ineligible for payment, it must be voided and will not be paid. There are a number of documents that must be submitted to CSF in a timely fashion. We will go over a list of some of these documents below. We may reach out to send reminders
by a deadline we provide, this may delay processing of invoice requests. Certificates of Insurance: This is required as part of the contract award process and we should receive these when insurance coverage is changed or before policy expiration. E‐Verify Affidavit and MOU: This documentation is required annually per Missouri statute
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for any organization that provides services in excess of $5,000. Audited Financial Statements: These should be sent annually. If there are any items of concern, CSF may reach out for additional information 990 & other tax documents: These must be sent annually. If you have any unrelated business income, your 990‐T and MO‐1120 must also be submitted. If extensions are filed for your 990, the extension form 8868 must also be provided.
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Quarterly finance communication includes:
Utilization Report
Program name/ID Available award amount for year/period Amount used in quarter Amount used YTD Amount remaining for year/period Does not include:
Transactions not paid/submitted CPT code utilization
Outstanding Held Transaction Listing
Transactions we are unable to clear Provide last opportunity to clarify Minimum of two weeks to provide responses
Target dates are May (Q1), August (Q2), November (Q3), February (Q4)
CSF tracks utilization of program awards for each invoice submission to ensure that sufficient funds remain to fulfill the invoice payment request. Utilized Amount Calculation: We calculate utilization amounts based upon what services have been paid, not just submitted. We calculate utilization periods based upon when paid services are rendered, not when the invoice is submitted. For example, a transaction that is provided in January but submitted is February is tracked as a January transaction. This is also true if it takes a few periods to resolve held transactions, as they are always recorded to the month in which they are rendered, not when they are submitted. This is done in large part to facilitate accurate quarterly Finance committee and Board reports. Since this information has to match the activity of our general ledger, our utilization tracking only includes those transactions that have been paid. Transactions not paid: As mentioned earlier, held/resubmitted/cleared transactions are not reflected on utilization until they are paid. Transactions that are voided are never included as part of utilization. CPT Code Utilization: CPT code utilization is not necessary as per CSF policy you may borrow between units within the same program. For example, if you have both CSF monitors unit usage and if we have any concerns, we will reach out directly. It is the responsibility of the agency to track any utilization outside of what CSF provides on a periodic basis. Due to the frequency and volume of transactions, we are unable to provide utilization reports in greater detail or frequency than quarterly.
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CSF tracks utilization of program awards for each invoice submission to ensure that sufficient funds remain to fulfill the invoice payment request. Utilized Amount Calculation: We calculate utilization amounts based upon what services have been paid, not just submitted. We calculate utilization periods based upon when paid services are rendered, not when the invoice is submitted. For example, a transaction that is provided in January but submitted is February is tracked as a January transaction. This is also true if it takes a few periods to resolve held transactions, as they are always recorded to the month in which they are rendered, not when they are submitted. This is done in large part to facilitate accurate quarterly Finance committee and Board reports. Since this information has to match the activity of our general ledger, our utilization tracking only includes those transactions that have been paid. Transactions not paid: As mentioned earlier, held/resubmitted/cleared transactions are not reflected on utilization until they are paid. Transactions that are voided are never included as part of utilization. CPT Code Utilization: CPT code utilization is not necessary as per CSF policy you may borrow between units within the same program. For example, if you have both CSF monitors unit usage and if we have any concerns, we will reach out directly. It is the responsibility of the agency to track any utilization outside of what CSF provides on a periodic basis. Due to the frequency and volume of transactions, we are unable to provide utilization reports in greater detail or frequency than quarterly.
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Notify us of your organization's finance staff hires & departures by sending e‐mail to csffinance@stlouisco.com
Contact details:
Name Position E‐mail Phone number
Permissions
Must register on portal Agencies should
Work with existing staff person (if possible) Review resources on CSF website Review invoice & credit memo templates Introduce to CSF finance representative
On‐site training at CSF offices (if needed)
Permissions: Specifically we need to know who needs permissions to submit invoices Must Register on Portal: Login on portal must match staff uploading. Shared logins are not
Work with existing staff person (if possible): Whenever possible, we would like the agency’s current billing contact to work with any new hires and/or existing staff who are assigned billing during periods of staff transition or extended absence. We understand that this cannot always be the case, but when possible, this is preferred. Resources to review: Many resources are available on our website. This includes today’s presentation and recent policy changes On‐site training at CSF offices: If additional assistance is needed, please reach out to your CSF finance representative to schedule an on‐site training session.
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Request for Proposals (RFP) for new system
Consolidate programmatic and billing components Streamline reporting and data collection process Improve logic used for holding transactions Automate manual processes
Finance‐specific feedback sessions with agencies for new system once selected Anticipated implementation in January 2022
We want to briefly talk about our future new system. This will be implemented in the future and will be used during the next funding cycle. The remainder of 2018‐2019 will be in our existing system. We are currently evaluating responses received to our RFP. We are keeping in mind the goals we have set based upon pain points and agency feedback on the billing
streamline reporting and data collection, and automate tasks processes that are currently more manual in nature. Finance specific feedback sessions for new system: Most importantly, we want any new system we implement to be user‐friendly. We may ask some agencies to provide feedback during the design phase and perhaps even participate in testing. We anticipate the new billing system to go‐live in January 2022. This means that we intend to continue to use existing system through the end of 2021.
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We are currently in the process of hiring several members to the CSF team, one of which will be part of the Finance team. This may involve agencies being assigned to the new staff member, but we will communicate that prior to when it goes into effect and provide and
Next year we will be conducting a funding study as requested by our Board. We plan to receive guidance appropriate use of other funders for like services in conjunction with CSF
insurance providers. We have already traveled to Jefferson City to discuss MoHealthNet with the Department of Social Services and have opened up lines of communication in how
During the upcoming 2020‐2022 funding cycle, we also plan on having a unit rate analysis
rates for services are in alignment with appropriate costs. Once the RFP is released and an
by key partners and providers.
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