Page 1 of 6
Onboarding Grant Program Announcement – August 2015
The Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority is pleased to announce a grant opportunity to support health information organizations (HIO) in their efforts to become certified participants in the
Pennsylvania Patient and Provider Network (P3N) and onboard Medicaid EHR incentive program
participating hospitals and ambulatory practices. This document provides details on the program. Please note that only a single grantee may receive funding for onboarding of any given hospital or ambulatory practice. Please refer to the payment phasing portion of this document for details on priority of award for individual hospitals and ambulatory practices.
Grant Program Overview:
The Grantee must use these funds to:Design, build, test, and implement an interface between the HIO and an Authority approved Medicaid EHR incentive program participating hospital. Implementation includes administrative activities (i.e. project management), legal activities, configuration, workflow integration, and training for hospital users.
Design and build an interface between the HIO and an ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) system and test and implement with at least two unaffiliated Medicaid EHR incentive program participating ambulatory practices. Implementation includes administrative activities (i.e. project management), legal activities, configuration, workflow integration, and training for users.
Please Note the Following Important Information:
1. The Grant Agreement and appendices are not binding in any way, nor will the
Commonwealth be bound, until the grant agreement has been federally approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and fully executed by the
Commonwealth. Any costs incurred by the Grantee prior thereto are incurred at the Grantee’s risk.
2. This grant program is made possible under a grant received by OMAP from CMS. The grant requires match funding in the form of state appropriations of 10% of the total awarded amount. The Authority is seeking to raise funds that will offset the required state appropriations in the Authority’s operating budget. Full funding of this program may not be available if the Authority is unable to raise the required offset funds. For information please contact David Grinberg, Deputy Director, at [email protected] or by phone at 717-214-2273.
Page 2 of 6
Eligible Organizations:
This grant is available to HIOs who have signed a Participation Agreement with The Authority and agree to complete certification activities and onboarding to P3N by the end of the performance period. HIOs must also remain certified and connected to P3N in good standing for two years following completion of P3N onboarding activities.
Grantees are also required to enable health information exchange (HIE) functions sufficient to allow constituents to achieve Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements.
Funding detail:
The Authority anticipates that more than $10 million will be available for this announcement. All awards under this program are subject to availability of funding through the end of the application period or when funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.
The grants will be awarded by the following method:
Grantees may apply for the following funding:Opportunity 1: The Grantee will be paid up to $70,000 per hospital to design, build, test, and implement an interface between the hospital and the Grantee.
Opportunity 2: The Grantee will be paid up to $50,000 per each ambulatory EHR system to design and build, and test an ambulatory EHR interface; and implementation of the interface with at least two ambulatory practices using that EHR.
Grantees may submit multiple applications over the course of the application period.
Payment and Phasing:
Grantees will submit a monthly progress report/invoice (using Appendix C) to the Authority in each month in which they are claiming completion of a phase, along with supporting documentation as described below. Amounts described for each opportunity are maximums: grantees may not receive more than they actually spend on onboarding activities with a particular hospital or ambulatory EHR. Participants should take this into account in the amounts they include in each monthly invoice, and may be asked to provide additional documentation to the Authority to substantiate expenses.
Grantees may leverage this grant to complete or modify implementations that were started before availability of this program, but the grantee may not receive more for any given hospital or ambulatory EHR than they spend on activities carried out during the performance period of this grant.
Payments for hospital and ambulatory EHR implementations will be phased. Implementations will consist of three phases. The following chart shows maximum payments for each completed phase. Explanations of requirements to satisfy each phase follow the chart:
Page 3 of 6
Phase
Total Contracting Technical
Implementation Production
Hospital (Full Implementation) $20,000 $25,000 $25,000 $70,000 Ambulatory EHR (Full Implementation) $15,000 $15,000 $20,000 $50,000 Contracting: Grantee provides Authority with fully executed contracts with one hospital or two
unaffiliated ambulatory practices using the same EHR system. Once a grantee provides executed contracts with a given hospital or ambulatory practice, no other grantee will be awarded funding under this grant for that hospital or ambulatory practice, unless the first grantee informs the Authority that they are abandoning the relationship and returns any funds received for that implementation.
For each hospitals or ambulatory practices, grantee must provide the name and CMS EHR Certification Number or ONC ID Number for that organization’s EHR system in the grant application. Grantee must provide a list of names and NPIs of Medicaid EHR incentive program eligible professionals for each ambulatory practice in the grant application. This information will support Authority program reporting to CMS.
Technical Implementation: Grantee provides Authority with Technical Implementation Attestation and Survey form(s) completed and signed by the hospital or ambulatory practices (using Appendix D). If a grantee completed technical implementation with a given hospital or ambulatory EHR prior to availability of this program, they may omit invoicing and supporting documentation for this phase. Production: Grantee provides Authority with Onboarding Completion Attestation and Survey form(s) completed and signed by the onboarded hospital or ambulatory practices (using Appendix E).
Grantee Related Funding restrictions:
Only one Grantee will be eligible to receive funding for any single hospital. Hospitals must be active Medicaid EHR incentive program participants. The Authority will validate each hospital’s eligibility in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Office of Medical Assistance Programs (OMAP).
Multiple Grantees may apply for funding to build interfaces to any single ambulatory EHR system, but no two Grantees may test and implement with any single ambulatory practice. Ambulatory practices must consist of providers who are active Medicaid EHR incentive program participants. The Authority will validate each practice’s eligibility in cooperation with OMAP.
Lists of eligible facilities and providers are available on the Authority website.
Application and Performance Period:
HIOs may apply for this funding through June 30, 2016. All Grantee project work and deliverables must be completed by September 30, 2016, unless otherwise approved by the Grantor. The Grantee must
Page 4 of 6
submit the final progress report/invoices by September 1, 2016, unless otherwise approved by the Grantor.
Application Instructions:
The Program Information Section of the application requires that the requesting HIO identify the
hospitals and ambulatory EHRs for which they are seeking onboarding funds. Awards will be made based on these applications, but remittance of funding is contingent upon the terms specified in this
announcement and in the grant agreement. HIOs are encouraged to submit an application with the full listing of hospitals and ambulatory EHRs they intend to onboard during the grant period. If the HIO later identifies additional hospitals or EHRs, they may submit an additional application.
In order to apply for this grant:
1. Complete the Onboarding Grant Program Application (Appendix B).
2. Submit the completed application including attachments 1-3, and the grant budget document to the Authority’s email account at [email protected].
The Authority will consider applications and make awards on valid applications, assuming funding availability, in the order in which applications are received by the Authority. Incomplete applications and applications received after the application period end date will NOT be considered for funding. For questions concerning this grant or the application, please contact Heather Lemmon, Program and Fiscal Manager, at [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. The application requires that I have a “Commonwealth of PA Non-Procurement Vendor #”. How do I get one? Vendors should register using the Non-Procurement Registration Form link at: www.vendorregistration.state.pa.us/cvmu/paper/GranteeRegistration.aspx. Note: Before submitting this form, vendors need to select the link to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form W-9 and print it. The IRS Form W-9 must be completed, signed, and faxed to the Payable Services Call Center at 717-214-0140 or emailed to [email protected]. After the W-9 form is successfully submitted, the registration will be processed and the vendor will be notified of his or her vendor number by email or phone.
2. The application requires that I have a “Federal Identification #”. How do I get one? You can apply online at www.irs-ein-number.com.
3. The application requires that I have a “DUNS #”. How do I get one? You can apply online at
www.dnb.com.
4. This announcement mentions that funding is contingent on satisfaction of the terms of the agreement. Can we review a draft of that agreement? Agreements will be prepared and provided to you upon receipt of a completed application. Your organization is under no obligation until the agreement is fully executed.
Page 5 of 6
5. My HIO may not be prepared to onboard hospitals or ambulatory practices within the timeframe that this grant is available. Will the Authority consider extensions to the time period? The Authority may request extensions to the source funding for this grant, and/or seek additional funding to extend this grant, but the Authority cannot guarantee the success of such efforts.
6. May we leverage this grant to implement modifications to systems already in place before this grant started, for example to make changes associated with our joining P3N? Yes, but you may only invoice a maximum of the expenses associated with work performed during the
performance period of the grant. You may not invoice for expenses incurred prior to availability of this program.
7. May we leverage this grant to implement interfaces for different versions of a single vendor’s ambulatory EHR software? Yes, but you must provide CMS EHR Certification Numbers or ONC ID Numbers for each ambulatory EHR implementation, and no single grantee may receive funding more than once for any given EHR Certification Number or ONC ID Number.
8. Why is this grant only available for onboarding of hospitals and ambulatory practices that are Medicaid EHR incentive program participants? Funding for this program is made possible by a CMS grant to OMAP. This requirement is a condition of the CMS grant.
9. Will the Authority make similar programs available for non-Medicaid EHR incentive program participating providers? The Authority will make such programs available if it can find funding sources to support them.
10. What happens if my application is incomplete or otherwise invalid? The Authority will consider applications and make awards on valid applications in the order in which those applications are received by the Authority. Applications that are incomplete or otherwise deemed invalid by the Authority will be returned to the submitting organization along with the reason for the
rejection. The Authority may offer partial funding based on complete and valid portions of the application. For example, if an HIO requested funding to onboard three hospitals, but the information provided in the application was insufficient for the Authority to determine eligibility for one of the three hospitals, the Authority could extend an offer for funding for the two valid hospitals. Organizations can resubmit applications for any portions of applications that are not funded by the Authority so long as the resubmission is received by 5 p.m. EDT on June 30, 2016.
11. Can an applicant pay the 10% match requirement? No. Match requirements must be fulfilled using state appropriated funding. Organizations may make donations to the Authority which will offset Authority operational costs and free up appropriated funding that the Authority can use as match. Organizations are cautioned, however, that donations to the Authority do not
guarantee the availability of onboarding grant funding or awards for any organization, including the donor.
12. If an organization pays out a vendor invoice during the performance period for service that is required to complete the onboarding, but which includes work done by the vendor prior to the performance period, can the HIO include this as an expense payable under the grant? An
Page 6 of 6
HIO may invoice for generic vendor products (i.e. licensing fees for software) that were not custom-developed specifically to satisfy the terms of the onboarding grant, regardless of when those products were developed. The HIO may not invoice for custom work done by a vendor to enable onboarding of a particular hospital or ambulatory practice unless that work was
completed during the performance period.
13. Can I include costs for human resources internal to my HIO in invoices for this grant? Yes, so long as you can account for the percentage of the employees’ time spent on activities directly related to the onboarding effort, and only bill for that percentage of the employees’ fully loaded wage or salary.
14. Should I apply for funds if it is unlikely that I can complete an onboarding effort by the end of the performance period? You may apply for funds even if you don’t think you can complete all onboarding activities by the end of the performance period. Please note, however, that you will be expected to complete the partially-funded onboarding, even though you will not be able to invoice the Authority for work done after the end of the performance period.
15. What happens if I cannot complete an implementation by the end of the performance period? Organizations can be paid for onboarding work conducted during the performance period and will not be paid for work occurring after the performance period. The Authority expects that onboarding will be completed by all those at least partially funded using this grant, regardless of whether the full grant money is leveraged. The Authority will follow up even after the end of the grant to ensure that the onboarding is completed and may require reimbursement of grant money if the onboarding was abandoned for reasons within the control of the HIO.
16. If there are subsequent rounds of the onboarding grant, can I request funding to complete work to onboard an organization started in this round? Yes, HIOs will be permitted to apply for funding to complete onboarding efforts started under a previous round, so long as they are in good standing with regards to their participation under the previous round. Please note, however, that the total allowances of $70k per hospital and $50k per pair of ambulatory providers using a common EHR cannot be exceeded, even across multiple rounds of funding.
