esMD

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**Announcements**

 * **The Author of Record Workgroup Kickoff is on Wednesday, June 6th, 2012 at 10 AM ET. More information about Author of Record activities can be found here.**
 * **__ Thank you for your participation!! __**As of May30th, 2012, the esMD Use Case 2 has been consensus approved. The document as well as the text embedded within the Use Case 2 Wiki page reflect updates that were proposed and agreed upon during the formal Consensus Process. Please contact the Workgroup Lead or Support Lead if you have any remaining questions or concerns
 * esMD April 2012 Face-to-Face meeting details, notes, and materials can be found here.

**esMD Meeting Schedule (at-a-glance)**

 * For more detailed meeting information, agendas, attendance, and notes, please visit the Initiative Workgroup Meetings page (located in the main menu above)**


 * ~  ||~ **Author of Record** ||~ **esMD Meeting I** ||~ **esMD Meeting II** ||
 * > **Weekly Meeting** ||= Wednesdays 10:00am-11:00am ET ||= Wednesdays 1:30pm-3:00pm ET ||= Fridays 2:00pm-3:00pm ET ||
 * > **Webex URL** ||= https://siframework1.webex.com/ ||= [] ||= [] ||
 * = **Access Code** ||= 665 330 522 ||=  ||=   ||

Initiative Overview
Healthcare payers frequently request that providers submit additional medical documentation for a specific claim, to support claims processing and other administrative functions, such as the identification of improper payments. Currently, Medicare Review Contractors request approximately 2 million medical documents per year by mailing a paper request letter via US Postal Service to healthcare providers. Until recently, providers had only two options for submitting the requested records: 1) mail paper or 2) send a fax. The manual paper process is costly, time consuming and can delay proper claims processing on both the senders’ and receivers’ end.

As of September 15, 2011, a pilot group of Health Information Handlers (HIHs) and Medicare Review Contractors began accepting electronic submissions from providers, as part of the first phase of esMD. These electronic submissions consist of an unstructured .PDF format of a scanned image, with an X12 wrapper. There is added value to CMS, Commercial Payers, and Providers in pursuing additional automation of the electronic request and submissions process.

CMS continues to investigate additional capabilities of electronic submission of medical documentation. The next release, esMD Phase 2, is planned for January 2013, which will enable Medicare Review Contractors to send electronic medical request letters, eliminating the need to send the paper letters via mail. CMS has joined the Standards & Interoperability (S&I) Framework to accomplish their immediate goals for Phase 2, and to address their long-term requirement for replacement of wet signatures by using the open forum, community expertise, and reusable assets that the S&I Framework provides.

The key objectives for the S&I Framework esMD Initiative include:


 * Identify a standards-based machine-interoperable electronic format to replace the current paper version of the medical document request letter sent to providers
 * Develop a registration process to allow Providers to sign up to receive electronic medical documentation request letters from CMS Review Contractors
 * Identify a secure method of sending medical documentation request letters from CMS review contractors to providers
 * Identify a solution that will enable an electronic replacement of wet signatures, for medical documents submitted from providers to CMS

esMD Community Members

 * Initiative Sponsor:** Melanie Combs-Dyer


 * Initiative Coordinator****:** Sam Elias

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Note: Everyone who attended the October F2F is listed as an ‘Interested Party’. If you want to become a Committed Member, please go to http://wiki.siframework.org/join and select Committed Member. If you are not interested in this Initiative and wish to have your name removed, please email admin@siframework.org.

**Support Team**

 * **Name** || **Role** || **Contact Information** ||
 * Sweta Ladwa || Project Manager || sweta.ladwa@esacinc.com ||
 * Adjoa Degbo || Administrative support || adjoa.degbo@esacinc.com ||
 * Emily Mitchell || Use Case Support Team || emily.d.mitchell@accenture.com ||
 * Presha Patel || Use Case Support Team || presha.patel@accenture.com ||
 * William Ryan || Harmonization Support Team || wiryan@deloitte.com ||
 * Shay Paintal || Harmonization Support Team || spaintal@deloitte.com ||
 * Anna Langhans || Standards Development Support Team || anna.langhans@accenture.com ||

Get Involved with esMD
As an open government initiative of the S&I Framework, the success of the esMD Initiative relies on the participation of a wide range of stakeholders, including various Payer and Provider organizations, health systems, standards development organizations, and the general public. Click here to register to be a part of the esMD initiative!

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