When Processing Birth Order Requests
As a reminder to County Vital Records Offices, please do not notify customers of any errors found on a birth record. Issue the birth certificate as is and if the customer indicates that there is an error, please direct the customer to contact the amendments team at CHS.Amendments@dhsoha.state.or.us. We will assist the customer with the correction process.
Accepting Credit Cards as Payment
The Center for Health Statistics has received questions from County Vital Record Offices about accepting credit cards as payment for vital record orders. This article provides guidelines for what is permissible based on how the order is received.
County Vital Records Offices must have security processes in place with their fiscal/financial office(s) to ensure protection of credit card information. Counties are responsible for knowing and following any county-specific fiscal guidelines for handling credit card payments.
For Orders Received In-Person, Via Email, Mail-In or FAX:
Customers may pay with a credit card without need for an authentication quiz. If you receive an order via email, mail or fax and the payment was not included, you may follow-up with the customer via telephone and get their credit card information.
While the transaction should be tracked in OVERS, the entire credit card number should never be entered into OVERS. County vital records offices should enter credit card payment information into OVERS orders as follows:
- Select “Check” as payment type.
- Enter the last four digits of the credit card number where the check number would go. The full credit card number should never be entered into OVERS.
For Orders Received Via Internet, Telephone or Kiosk:
If you are interested in exploring the ability to accept orders through an internet, kiosk or telephone ordering system, you will need to partner with a vendor such as VitalChek or LexisNexis. The vendor must provide an authentication quiz for customers wanting to pay with credit cards.
An authentication quiz shall be used for each order received through an internet, kiosk or telephone ordering system. The authentication quiz verifies the identity of the applicant. The authentication quiz shall be based on publicly available information and must be information requiring personal knowledge not available from reviewing current information typically found in a wallet (OAR 333-011-0330).
A fee of $7 shall be paid to expedite the search and filling of an order for a certified copy when the order is placed through an internet or telephone ordering system, billed to a credit card and processed within three working days upon receipt of the order. This fee is in addition to the fee charged by a subcontractor providing computer, prepayment, billing and collection services for orders processed using the subcontractor's services.
For questions about accepting credit cards as payment for vital record orders, email Caroline Zanot at Caroline.Zanot@dhsoha.state.or.us.
Working from Home (WFH)
If County Vital Record Offices are exploring options to allow employees to work (or continue to work) from home, this article provides a suggested workflow process that the Center for Health Statistics (CHS) currently uses for fulfilling vital record orders. This hybrid process requires an in-office team member to create a daily pdf scan folder and to scan and save order forms and documents into the folder on a secure server. Work From Home (WFH) employees access the same file folder remotely and manually enter (key) the orders into OVERS.
Entering and Screening Orders
1. Each order form along with all accompanying documents are scanned and merged into a single pdf file. Each file should be saved in the designated folder on the secure server by date and with another identifier (name, sequential number, etc.).
2. Each day, files are assigned to each WFH team member to key into OVERS.
3. The WFH team member accesses the file folder or files assigned to them and opens each individual pdf file as they work to process it.
4. Once an order file is opened, the order is screened for:
a) Payment (For the state vital records office, the payment has already been processed and marked complete at this point.)
b) Completion (Each line of the record is reviewed to ensure all required information is included.)
c) Eligibility (The applicant meets the criteria of someone who can place the order.)
d) Valid ID (Copies of sufficient and valid ID have been provided by the applicant.)
5. Next, the order is keyed into OVERS following the standard order processing procedure to create an order number.
6. If there are any discrepancies caught during the screening process: the employee enters a comment in the order within the order summary page.
a) The comment needs to be clear, concise and state what needs to be addressed before the record can be issued. (Examples: Need mother’s maiden name. -or- Date of Birth is missing.)
7. The order form and supporting documents need to be scanned into a pdf that is uploaded to attachments in the “Attachments” section from the left "Order Processing Menu". This allows the original order form and supporting documents to be accessed for any future needs.
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8. Each order that has been entered into OVERS is put into a centrally-shared, secure list and then accessed by an in-office team member for final processing. Counties will need to create their own method of communicating which files are ready for final processing and which ones need to be held for additional information. This could be an excel list of order numbers or individual emails to the in-office team member.
The above procedure is repeated for each new order.
This process provides in-office employees the ability to either a) print (issue) certificates from the assigned orders and mail them to customers who submitted complete orders -OR- b) communicate with customers who submitted incomplete orders that their order cannot be processed until missing information is provided.
Helpful Hint: Create an "Already Entered" folder, to place all orders from a date range that have been keyed into OVERS. This will keep your orders organized.
This process mirrors what is done by the Center for Health Statistics (CHS) Vital Records Certification team. Employees are assigned different days to serve as the in-office team member or to work from home. When working from home, employees must access files through the approved secure remote access system and must adhere to the same security and confidentiality protocols.
If you would like additional information, please contact Caroline Zanot, Oregon Vital Records County Field Liaison, at Caroline.Zanot@dhsoha.state.or.us.
Managing Intaglio Paper Supply
It is important that County Vital Record Offices have an adequate supply of intaglio paper to fulfill requests they receive for birth and/or death certificates. It is the responsibility of each county to manage supplies and order additional paper in ample time to ensure they always have paper for certificates that are ordered.
We encourage counties to determine the average amount of intaglio paper they use in a month and create a process to ensure that they order more paper when they get down to a two-month supply. When creating this process, consider the following:
- Each ream of intaglio paper contains 500 sheets.
- While intaglio paper orders are processed quickly by Oregon Vital Records, counties should allow several weeks for intaglio paper to arrive as shipping times can vary greatly.
To order more intaglio paper, complete the Intaglio Paper Order Form and submit it by:
Please email CHS.Vitalrecords@dhsoha.state.or.us if you have any questions about ordering intaglio paper.
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