MnCHOICES Matters - November 2015

Minnesota Department of Human Services
MnCHOICES Matters

November 13, 2015

MnCHOICES Matters archive

Focusing on people not programs


New Section on MnCHOICES CountyLink Page for Reassessments

If you use the MnCHOICES CountyLink page, and we hope you do, make sure to take a look at the new section devoted to tools and guidance for rolling out MnCHOICES Reassessments. It includes the following documents at this time:

Here’s a CLU or Two

There are several new online courses in TrainLink that will help Certified Assessors who are “Integrating Work and Benefits in Person-Centered Planning.”  The training will help you integrate person-centered techniques and spark the culture change needed to support the people you serve!  There are four courses which must be taken in order:

  1. Introduction – Introduces new expectations around work and what we need to do to support the changes
  2. Think Differently – Helps align thoughts, challenge misconceptions and debunk myths about employment and benefits
  3. Communicate Differently – Helps strengthen abilities to provide engaging positive messaging about work
  4. Work Differently – Describes strategies to integrate person centered planning approaches

New eDoc

The Case Manager’s Recipient Information form is now available in eDocs as DHS-7185.  This document can be used by a case manager who is not a certified assessor to provider information about a recipient prior to the recipient’s initial “Reassessment” in MnCHOICES.

Privy about Passwords

We all know that to create a strong password we are encouraged to use both upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.  However, using certain symbols in your SSIS or MnCHOICES passwords can cause issues especially when opening MnCHOICES from SSIS.  In addition, it can cause errors in saving your password correctly when going from online to offline mode.  Here are the dos and don’ts:

Do use:

  • Equivalent, squiggly, twiddle or tilde ~
  • Exclamation mark !
  • At symbol @
  • Number, pound, sharp or hash #
  • Caret, cursor or circumflex ^
  • Asterisk or star *
  • Underscore  _
  • Hyphen, minus or dash -

Do not use:

  • Apostrophes or single quote
  • Quotation marks  “ ”
  • Comma , 
  • Open  or closed parentheses ( )
  • Equals sign =

Interagency Contact Point

The deadline to submit initial information for each agency’s MnCHOICES Interagency Contact Point (MICP) has passed.  If your agency did not yet submit this information, please do it immediately.  If there is a reason you are not able to submit all the information now, complete the survey with information you know and tell us the date you estimate you will have complete information including dedicated and secure:

  • Phone number
  • Fax number
  • Email address

The MICP list is posted on the MnCHOICES CountyLink page under the Reassessment section in CountyLink.  If and when changes are needed to your MICP information, use the survey to provide the update.

Fresh and Refreshed Resources on MnCHOICES CountyLink

MnCHOICES CountyLink page has many new and updated tools and guidance to support you and the work you do in MnCHOICES.  You might just want to take a look at:

New:

Updated:

Disability Benefits 101 Releases New Feature

My DB101 is a new feature that allows people to create their own personal view in Disability Benefits 101 (DB101).  With My DB101 they can add and save their favorite articles, tools and recent estimator sessions.  After creating a My DB101 account they can log in and:

  • Save articles and tools just by clicking Add to favorites
  • Automatically save all DB101 Estimator Sessions
  • Look under Recent Sessions and click on Get older saved sessions to get estimator session created before 7/1/2015

Help Wanted

The DHS MnCHOICES Team proudly considers all lead agencies and their staff as an important extension of our team.  Often, we need to reach out to you to inquire about your potential interest to work more closely with us on a short or long-term basis.  Sometimes it is a more formal arrangement and we need to go through a formal process such as we are currently doing to establish a MnCHOICES Advisory Committee.  Other times, it does not happen with formality.  If you, or your agency, have a desire to occasionally work with us, please send us an email with your contact information including:

  1. First and last name
  2. Agency
  3. Phone number including area code
  4. Email address
  5. Your role(s) with MnCHOICES
  6. Potential areas of interest for working with DHS such as:
  • Pilot new releases of MnCHOICES before statewide release
  • Test new training before it goes live
  • Provide a “real” assessment experience by allowing DHS staff to shadow with an assessor

We will keep the contact information on file for those times when we need to reach out for your assistance.  Thanks for your consideration!

Certified Assessors and ICD-10 Codes

On October 1, 2015, the transition process from ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes for home and community-based services began.  Important information is found in Bulletin #15-25-11.  While the entire bulletin has essential information, assessors may want to pay particular attention to Section VII:  Sources of Diagnostic Codes.  It includes a table with codes that can be used by assessors to complete screening documents and service agreements, if they are not able to obtain a diagnosis from a medical record.

Footer

 

For more information about MnCHOICES, visit us on the DHS website. For technical assistance about MnCHOICES, visit us on CountyLink.