Over the last several months, we have assisted customers in switching to the HETS (HIPAA Eligibility Transaction System) from DDE as customers prepare for the April 2014 elimination of eligibility data.
I have discussed in previous articles about differences between these two systems, how they obtain their information, and how this impacts the ability of certain providers to verify Medicare patient eligibility information.
One item that has been mentioned often by our customers is the Lifetime Psychiatric Remaining Days (LPRD). This value is available through DDE, but is not returned by CMS through the HETS ANSI 271 response. We have many customers who use DDE exclusively for the purpose of looking up patients and getting this single value. We have reported this to the HETS help desk and it appears that they are responding to the problem. Continue reading