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Minnesota Cancer Reporting Systems (MCRS) Data Dashboards
We invite you to attend our next webinar on Jan. 8 from 12:10 to 1:00 pm, led by Paula Lindgren, MS, Biostatistician in the Minnesota Cancer Reporting System (MCRS). Paula will provide an overview of the valuable data and features of the MCRS interactive dashboards and highlight key insights into how social determinants of health can influence cancer diagnoses, mortality, and screening rates.
A primary objective of this session is to help partners understand trends in cancer data and explore opportunities to increase prevention and early detection efforts in communities that are most affected.
Don't miss this opportunity to learn how to access the dashboards and other cancer statistics and reports on the Minnesota Cancer Reporting Systems Cancer Statistics and Reports webpage.
Join us online for our quarterly office hours.
Join our Office Hours on Jan. 29 from 12:10 to 1 p.m. for a brief Sage Program overview and Q&A time. Office Hours will be informal with a focus on Sage Office Hours are intended for new clinic staff or clinic staff who need a refresher on the Sage Program.
Office Hours objectives:
- Program eligibility criteria is defined and reviewed.
- Sage covered services (both screening and diagnostic) are reviewed and explained.
- The required forms are reviewed.
- The process for following up on an abnormal screening result is explained.
- Billing information is provided.
Using media to educate the American Indian population on cervical cancer screening and the Sage Program
In Minnesota, the cervical cancer incidence rate is more than 2.5 times higher for American Indians compared to all other racial or ethnic groups in Minnesota. American Indian individuals across the state are more than 3.5 times more likely to receive a late-stage cervical cancer diagnosis than their white, non-Hispanic counterparts. Additionally, only 56% of late-stage cervical cancer diagnoses will survive to the five-year mark compared to 91% of early-stage diagnoses (MCRS).
For these reasons, Sage Program staff recently partnered with the American Indian Cancer Foundation and KAT & Company to create a 30-second, animated video ad that’s culturally tailored to the American Indian population to spread awareness of cervical cancer screening and the Sage Program. The video is currently being played on all GoodHealth TV networks across the state through the end of December. Data collection is ongoing, and we’ll share campaign results early next year. Please download and share the video here.
Partners collaborate to increase screenings
The Sage Program and American Cancer Society implemented a breast cancer screening campaign in Southwest Minnesota that ran from August through October 2024. The campaign aimed to address the high breast cancer mortality rate in SW Minnesota, which is significantly higher than any other region in the state.
Several partners, including local American Cancer Society staff and volunteers, public health departments in the area, Sage clinics, and health insurance providers, encouraged community members to get their mammogram. The campaign included paid advertising with two local media outlets, paid social media ads in seven languages, breast cancer survivor stories, MDH press release, posters, and more.
Data is still being collected to assess if breast cancer screening numbers increased due to the campaign. To date, the impact has included:
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Social media reach: 149,000 social media impressions, reaching over 29,000 people.
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Training: Sage held multiple training opportunities with SW Minnesota Sage clinics to educate about campaign resources.
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Mobile mammography events: Sage made a new connection with the Sioux Falls Sanford mobile mammography unit and held a mobile screening event at Our Lady of Guadalupe Free Clinic in Worthington that will recur semi-annually (see below for more information). Sage also attended the second-annual mobile screening event with Mayo mobile mammography and the Lower Sioux Tribal Community.
The Campaign Toolkit can be found here: Increasing Cancer Screening in Southwest Minnesota
Partners of the SW MN Breast Cancer Screening Campaign include UCare, Mayo Clinic Health System, Olivia Hospital and Clinic, Pipestone County Medical Center and Family Clinic, The Globe, BlueCross BlueShield Minnesota, Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP), Access Health, Avera, American Cancer Society (ACS), Public Health Kandiyohi County, and Marshall Radio.
Send us your events!
If your clinic or organization is hosting a Cervical Cancer Awareness Month event in January and you would like Sage to advertise it, please send details to Mia.Suzuki@state.mn.us by Jan. 3. We will send a brief newsletter out in January to highlight Cervical Cancer Awareness Month activities.
Tips to encourage your patients to get screened
- Patient reminders
- Host a ‘Pappy Hour’ event
- Target ‘never screened’ or ‘overdue’ patients when scheduling Pap smears
- Make it a fun atmosphere with treats, prizes, educational materials, etc.
- Contact Sage to learn how we can help your clinic!
- Display data/reminders/trivia on your in-clinic TVs or on your clinic websites for the month of January!
- Social media engagement
- Make sure to follow the Minnesota Department of Health (@mnhealth) on Facebook, X, and Instagram to stay engaged and re-post cervical cancer awareness content!
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Showcasing Sage Programs and partner collaborations
The Sage and SagePlus Programs presented on two of their projects during the 2024 American Public Health Association Conference in October.
- The Sage Program highlighted their work on reversing the impact of reduced mobile mammography availability in Minnesota among the low-income, uninsured population. This work is in partnership with the American Cancer Society and Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB). The presentation shared Sage’s role in providing breast cancer screenings in the low-income and uninsured/underinsured population, breast cancer disparities, barriers to mobile mammography events, and results from MMB’s interviews, literature reviews and listening sessions. Outcomes included mapping of current mobile mammography events, Sage clinics, and where coverage gaps are. Lastly, Sage highlighted new mobile mammography partnerships and events, showing an increase in interest and participation from partners across the state.
- The SagePlus Cardiovascular Screening Program presented on their feasibility study involving medication therapy management (MTM) to reduce and stabilize blood pressure in a low-income, uninsured population. This work was in partnership with Hennepin Healthcare Richfield. The presentation highlighted the need for hypertension control among SagePlus eligible patients. As part of the feasibility study, participants received health coaching, MTM sessions with a pharmacist (telehealth offered and encouraged), assistance in identifying and navigating barriers, follow-up screening, and an incentive. Eighty percent of patients completed the program, with all patients adhering to their medication for seven out of seven days. Participants reported an overall increase in feeling more empowered to control their hypertension. SagePlus staff concluded that the intervention was successful and viewed positively by clinic staff and patients, although telehealth was not a preferred option. Even though patients face barriers to health, the intervention was doable and acceptable, even with many in-person sessions. The Richfield pharmacist team and SagePlus staff are participating in a national Community of Practice for pharmacist interventions to improve community health.
A recap on collaboration efforts to increase colorectal cancer screening
On Nov. 12, health care payors, providers, and patient advocates participated in a Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Summit at the American Cancer Society’s offices in Eagan to explore ways to collaborate and coordinate to increase cancer screening. Panelists and speakers discussed issues related to Colorectal Cancer screening access and equity, presenting new screening data and strategies to reach high-risk populations with disproportionately high rates. Slides and recordings are available from the Minnesota Cancer Alliance Colon Cancer Network.
Below is a slide from a presentation by Emmy Paulson, MDH, showing county boundaries and shaded areas representing American Indian Tribal lands, colonoscopy clinic locations, and areas within a 30 minute drive of a clinic across Minnesota and in the Twin Cities metro area.
Sioux Falls Sanford Mobile Mammography
The Sage Program recently partnered with the Sioux Falls Sanford mobile mammography unit and Our Lady of Guadalupe Free Clinic (OLGFC) in Worthington to host a very successful 3D mammography mobile screening event on October 21. This was the first event Sage has collaborated with Sanford mobile mammography.
Lori Moelter, Radiology Manager at Edith Sanford Breast Center stated, “The mobile mammography screening event at OLGFC on Oct. 21 went very well. The women we screened were appreciative of the event and asked if there would be others in the future. I want to thank the Sage program and the OLGFC for letting us be a part of this event.”
“On behalf of OLGFC, I want to express our sincere appreciation for the invaluable partnership with Sanford and Sage,” stated Mariana Gutierrez, Clinic Administrator at Our Lady of Guadalupe Free Clinic. “Creating opportunities for more women in our community to access screenings has been incredibly impactful, and the positive feedback from the women served has been heartwarming. We are thrilled to have scheduled dates set for 2025 and look forward to continuing this meaningful work together.”
Our Lady of Guadalupe Free Clinic, Sioux Falls Sanford mobile mammography and Sage will be co-hosting a similar event in April and October 2025.
Stay tuned for future newsletters that will spotlight additional mobile mammography unit providers and their efforts!
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Help us update our contact list
Sage is in the process of updating clinic contact information. Our internal database includes five different roles. It’s important for us to have a contact person for each role at a site (the same person can fill more than one role; descriptions of the roles are below).
Please fill out this form so we can make sure we have the correct contacts in our system for timely communication with your clinic. https://forms.office.com/g/pqivKhHbnP
Please share this email with other staff at your clinic who fulfill any of the Sage Program roles so they can enter their contact information using the form above.
Sage is modernizing to improve service delivery
Sage is working to modernize businesses practices and processes allowing for streamlined electronic data submission by clinic partners. We hear and understand that it is sometimes difficult to administer our program due to the manual processes, paper forms, and faxes. Please reach out to Ann Reid or Nicole Atkinson if you have any questions or would like to learn more.
Since August, the Sage Modernization Team has identified five clinics that will be able to join the pilot project:
- Bois Forte
- Neighborhood Health Source
- Red Lake
- Scenic Rivers Health System
- Southside Community Health Services
As a result of the discovery process and the realization that required changes to Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems will take more time than anticipated, the scope of the pilot has changed to include Direct Data Entry and ePDF exchange options. The MDH DEX and Koble options will be available later in calendar year 2025 and will be part of a separate phase or initiative.
The technical team will roll out the new data exchange options in the following order:
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Phase 1 – January 2025: New Sage Portal/ Direct Data Entry into the following Sage Forms: Enrollment, Visit Summary, Breast Imaging Summary, Breast Abnormal, Breast Case Summary, Cervical PAP, Cervical Abnormal, Cervical Summary; and the SagePlus Form.
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Phase 2 – April 2025: New Sage Portal/ ePDF Form Submissions/ Clinic Dashboard that gives status of submitted forms (i.e. pending, approved).
We look forward to keeping you updated on the project progress, again, please feel free to contact us with any questions.
– The Sage Modernization Project Team
SagePlus Reminder
Please use the correct version of the Sage enrollment form (version 4) as posted on the website.
Another Cohort of the Le Me SeSe Participants Started in November
Le Me SeSe, an 8-month program offered through SagePlus that provides a culturally relevant, simple, lifestyle curriculum to improve health and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) for women of African descent started another cohort in November 2024. Over thirty participants, including many SagePlus-enrolled women, joined in the program. Women were recruited and enrolled at various community churches in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.
Instruction started Nov. 18 and is offered monthly in Brooklyn Park, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. The program’s curriculum was designed through a partnership with SagePlus, Stairstep Foundation, Black Nurses Rock-Twin Cities, Messianic Care PLLC, and University of Minnesota Extension in a collaborative effort to create effective and culturally relevant course materials for the participants to stay engaged throughout the program. Training sessions include activities and lectures focused on cardiac physiology, participants’ heart health, goal setting, nutrition, and exercise. Each participant is connected to a cardiac coordinator who serves as their health coach and support person. Participants are given weekly assignments to complete and discuss with their cardiac coordinator to reinforce the learnings, and participate in weekly exercise programming like Zumba and line dancing. The program for this cohort ends in June 2025.
Billing Department Reminders
The Sage remittance advice is a little different than your typical remittance advice. On the Sage provided paper remittance advice you will see 4 different sections that claims can fall into.
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“Wait Status P1: Action needed: Sage data entry is current for these dates of services”. This indicates the claims in this section are at risk for denial if the error description provided on the remit is not addressed as we have completed data entry for the date of service on the claim and do not have the supporting information required to adjudicate the claim.
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“Wait status P2: NOTE: Forms with these DOS not entered yet. No action may be needed, Read for billing errors”. Claims in this section are currently pending until data entry staff enters supporting information submitted to Sage for the date of service the claim is for.
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Denied: Claims that have denied will be listed in this section with a Sage related error description of why the claim denied.
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Paid: At the bottom of each chunk of paid claims (sometimes there will be two subsections within the Paid claims section), an invoice ID#, Voucher ID, total amount of the ACH payment made by Sage, reference # (which is the check #), and method of payment will be listed.
Clearinghouse update: If your organization is not directly connected to Availity as a clearinghouse, you will have noticed claims are not submitting to Sage with error message “Invalid Payer ID.” This is because Availity is no longer delivering claims or electronic remittances (835 files) unless your organization has a direct connection to Availity. Availity is no longer working as a pass-through network, including to Sage’s clearinghouse, UHIN. If your billing software or organization is using a clearinghouse other than Availity and claims are not submitting with error message, “Invalid Payer ID”, please have your clearinghouse contact UHIN by phone: 877-693-3071 or email customerservice@uhin.org to troubleshoot.
FAQs
Q: I have a question about billing. Who can I talk to at Sage?
A: You can email health.sagebilling@state.mn.us. Please encrypt your email if it has confidential information. You can also call our Billing Department at 651-201-5630.
Q: Can our clinic send completed forms electronically?
A: The Sage Program prefers receiving forms and results via fax or email. You can fax forms to 1-877-495-7545 or email as an attachment to health.sagebilling@state.mn.us.
Q: Some claims with date of service Jul. 1, 2024 to current have not been adjudicated. Should I resubmit the paperwork?
A: No, please do not resubmit paperwork. Due to staffing constraints, we are currently working hard to enter forms and reports for patients with dates of service Jul. 1 2024 to current. Sage’s timely filing limit of 120 days from the date of service ensures that data entry lag does not adversely impact the timely filing requirement. If you would like to confirm that a form or result is in queue to enter, please contact the Sage billing team.
Q: Our clinic would like training on the Sage Program. Who can help us?
A: Reach out to Carlie Koberstine, Clinical Services Consultant, at carlie.koberstine@state.mn.us or 651-201-4969.
Q: Are we able to enroll an asymptomatic transgender client for breast cancer screening who is between the ages of 40-50 and has completed hormone usage for 5-10 years prior to turning 40, if requested by the provider?
A: The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program transgender guidance says to start screening transgender women at the age of 50. However, there may be special circumstances where they may be screened earlier such as length of time on hormones and family history. Therefore, if a provider determines that a transgender woman needs to be screened in their 40s because of length of time on hormones, it is okay to enroll them in the Sage program. See guidelines at link below.
Screening for breast cancer in transgender women | Gender Affirming Health Program (ucsf.edu)
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