ePrior Approval

[clairec]

I work for a large NHS Health Board and we have just found out that Carestream is not going to be fully integrated for ePrior Approval and that we will have to submit our PAs via a web portal.  It's my understanding that all details will manually have to be keyed into the web form which will be very time consuming, laborious and open to lots of errors.

I am very disappointed as I feel we have been mislead regarding ePrior Approval.  It's my understanding that Carestream is the only software that isn't being fully integrated. 

We now have eOrtho round the corner and I am deeply concerned that we will be in the same situation with this.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Claire

[Nina-Gilbert]

Hi Claire

I'm sorry to hear that you are disappointed with any messaging we've given around Prior Approvals within CS R4+.

This is our initial release to help the practices meet the 1st October deadline of paper forms no longer being permitted, whilst still allowing us to address other customer needs with our resources and allow for a further release this year for all customers.

We are in receipt of the specification for the 3rd eDental phase – Ortho payments, and will revisit the prior approval integration as part of this work.

We are committed to supporting all of our NHS practices in all regions of the UK to continue working to regulations through CS R4+.

Please feel free to contact me directly on nina.gilbert@csdental.com if you would like to talk through this further.

Nina

[grk]

Hi,

I completely agree with Claire everything that she has said.

Having just spent a significant investment in carestream digital radiography.  I am very disappointed also in Carestreams choice to not fulfil their pledge to be fully integrated by Oct 18 for ePrior Approval!  I would like to hope that you would reconsider this decision!

It is especially frustrating when all through this process even PSD have been commenting on how far ahead carestream have been.  This all feels like it may have all been smoke and mirrors from the start.  You have mislead your customers and the Scottish government.

[clairec]

Hi Nina,

Thanks for your reply.

Can you please clarify when you say "revisit ePrior Approval integration, does this mean you will definitely be integrating ePrior Approval at this time? Is the web portal only for the interim until January 2019 as this is the date for eOrtho?

If this is the case then I would be grateful if all Health Boards can have this confirmed in writing.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Claire 

[rktuck]

Well said Claire. This is extremely disappointing. I freely admit I am a technophobe and pay good money to have someone else keep things as simple as possible for me. Practitioner services are not known for being tolerant of even tiny errors so I see claims being continually bounced back and nurses spending lots of time on the phone to practitioner services rather than performing their other duties. This is aside from the extra time it will take to complete a PA in the first place. I’m not impressed! Karen Tuck

[Riverbank]

Hi,

I'd like to echo everything Claire has said.

As a practice, we are feeling very let down that Carestream will not be offering fully integrated e-prior approval from 1st October, despite Carestream previously having made all the right noises about being on target to meet PSD dates.  The proposed-work around will be time consuming, and open to transcription errors.  This will lead to delays in patients at R4 practices receiving treatment, as it will require dentists to personally log in to the web-portal and transcribe the proposed treatment, rather than what I assume to be a few clicks in any other Dental System.  Increased likelihood of errors will also mean increased likelihood of rejection, further delaying treatment and disadvantaging patients of practices using R4, in comparison with those whose practices use other systems.

I am looking for Carestream to address this issue as a priority.  The local area we serve has a very high number of households in SIMD 1-3, with complex dental needs, and we are required to submit a relatively large number of prior approvals.  The work-around will disadvantage those with the greatest need, and has the potential to reduce the amount of clinical time available when dentists must instead spend time on admin, further impacting on patient care.

We have used R4 since we opened 12 years ago, and have spent a small fortune in licences, upgrades, imaging equipment and support fees over that period. I feel this is an indication of the level of Carestream's commitment to their practices in Scotland, and as a practice, we need to re-evaluate whether we want to continue with Carestream if they are not able to provide the solutions that are necessary to enable us to work smoothly in a modernising NHS.

[Nina-Gilbert]

Hi All

Thank you for your responses.

As mentioned, we are reviewing how we can include the full PA functionality as part of the eOrtho release. We are working with Practitioner Services on the messaging going out to sites for both the Prior Approval project and the later planned eOrtho work.

We are also reviewing the documentation we can send to sites ahead of receiving the v6.5 release to help better understand the interim solution.

We will post updates on the Exchange as well as send communications directly to your practices. If you have more questions, please feel free to email me directly on nina.gilbert@csdental.com

Kind Regards

Nina

[westport]

I am not really sure "further explanation" is what R4+ users are looking for.

As far as I am concerned this is about good customer support, something we pay dearly for and in this case  don't seem to be getting.

[rktuck]

As we understand it in our practice ePrior approval is not something that has been landed on software providers as an overnight surprise? To this end why should R4+ users wait till potentially 2019 for this issue to be resolved when other software providers seem able to get their act together to give their users a simple and on time transition to ePrior Approval? As part of our monthly support fees are we being unreasonable in expecting regular software updates that reflect the changes in how the NHS administers dental treatment? Are Carestream taking steps to expedite the integration or are we expected to wait till next year?

[Joanne21]

I also work for a large NHS Health Board . After completing the upgrade we discovered that the ePrior Approval was within this update and we have not yet been provided details for this. I find this very frustrating that the upgrade was available to us without all information required to allow us to send prior approval claims.
I am also disappointed that carestream are not having the eprior approval fully integrated into R4 as clinical staff are very busy and if the current system is time consuming this is not appropriate for clinical staff.
Regards
Joanne