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The Operations Unit is happy to bring back our quarterly newsletter. In this edition we’d like to introduce you all to the Operations Unit staff and provide information for communicating to the various units. Operations is comprised of the COO, four managers and 50 staff who handle all issues related to fiscal, contracts, eXPRS system change requests, training or issues, provider enrollment, technical assistance for providers and CMEs, web designs and new IT solutions and all other opportunities these tasks bring.
As the COO I oversee the following:
- Amber Padilla, manager of the business supports unit
- Heather Smith, manager of the operations administration unit
- Vanessa Richkind, manager of the provider administration unit
- Marla Rich, manager of the systems development unit
- Amanda Alessi and Patty Hahn; strategic initiative operations analyst
- Gary Dansereau, web designer
- Krista Riddell, positions management coordinator and COO support
- Prakash Pattnaik, project director
The unit managers and the change managers all have information about their work in this newsletter. Please note, Patty Hahn and Amanda Alessi, will begin reaching out to different groups who will be impacted by the individual systems, case management and provider. Surveys to measure and establish a baseline is a huge part of change management and we ask for your cooperation if you receive a survey.
I am very proud of the work our staff produce in the operations unit and look forward to our new engagements and feedback to continually strive for improvement.
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The Systems Development Unit are currently leading two CMS 90/10 funded projects, case management (CM) and provider enrollment and maintenance (PEMS). These projects are going to create statewide systems for case management and provider management and enrollment.
- The projects kicked off in early 2022, Large IT projects such as these are required to go through the stage gate process with Enterprise Information Services (EIS).
- The stage gate process is made up of 4 stages: Initiation, planning, implementation, and execution. With the end of the project and the moving to operations stage the final parts.
- The project team has completed stage one and is very close to completing stage two. If you’d like to learn more about the details of what type of work goes into each stage gate, that can be found here. https://www.oregon.gov/das/OSCIO/Pages/StrategyStageGate.aspx
The CM and PEMS projects are going to touch the work of almost every part of ODDS and I/DD services across the state.
- Currently there are no central statewide systems that do the work of case management or provider enrollment and maintenance. Many teams must maintain manual workflows and tracking to ensure all the parts of the work are completed.
- These new systems will eliminate most or all of those manual processes. They will allow you to do your work in a more streamlined and productive way. It will be easier to check the status of a new agency provider’s license, or the status of a provider’s trainings and the renewal dates for all those things.
- Case management entities will be able to seamlessly transfer individuals from one county to another and maintain the historical records for easy access to the new county. There will be multiple reports built in and the ability to create ones specific to your needs.
The members of the projects team are as follows:
- Prakash Pattnaik, project director
- Marla Rich, project teams manager
Case management project
- Ryan Kell, project manager
- Josh Friend, project coordinator
- Bob Johansen, senior business analyst
Provider enrollment and maintenance agency module
- Brutus Segun, project manager
- Marissa Gutfreund, project coordinator
- Nadia Alfaqeeh, senior business analyst
Provider enrollment and maintenance universal provider module
- Brutus Segun, project manager
- Beth Gehert, project coordinator
- Sowmya Sirigari, business analyst
All members of the projects team can be reached at
ODDS.ITProjects@odhsoha.oregon.gov
In next month’s newsletter we will present a more in-depth look at the PEMS project.
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Happy New Year everyone! 2022 was a busy year for the operations administration unit (OAU), which consists of contracts, fiscal and housing. Our current staff are:
- Ian Cobb, administrative specialist, contract relations specialist
- Patti Senger, procurement and contract specialist
- Becky Walker, funding allocation coordinator
- Katrina Nelson, fiscal analyst
- David Pope, program analyst, provider and contract audits
- Mary Crabtree, program analyst, community housing specialist
If you have any questions, please email the following shared email boxes:
Contracts and fiscal updates:
- The contracts and fiscal team are working on a large volume of ARPA solicitations, contract/grants and payment requests. Due to the volume of ARPA requests, we are experiencing some delays with the response times of our Office of Contracts and Procurement (OC&P) and Department of Justice (DOJ).
- The end of the biennium is right around the corner, which means another large surge in contract requests, as well as fiscal work.
Housing and home modification updates:
- Currently the housing team is connecting with SC/PAs to schedule home visits within 3 business days from receiving an exceptions request. For those visits that are over the pass or in eastern Oregon we are conducting virtual visits when appropriate, but the in-person visits will be scheduled in the spring when the weather on the passes improves.
- We anticipate releasing the AFH/Provider home modification ARPA grant in February. Look for this opportunity to be released in an upcoming transmittal.
- In 2022 the housing team did an amazing job in getting home modification requests processed timely and scopes of work developed and sent out to CMEs. Here is a look at the numbers for 2022.
- Total initial exception requests received: 115
- Total # site visits completed (virtual and in-person): 123
- Total # SOWs developed: 118
- Total # home modifications completed and funded: 69
- Total paid for home modifications: $1,203,153.75
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Welcome to the Business Supports Unit! We are a team of 13 employees, including:
- Our manager, Amber Padilla
- The business analysts, Anne Koreski, Kim Bienkowski, Kendra Henley, Maggie Deeks, Rebecca Cervantes-Sheeler, Ana Laura Rios-Torres and Julie Osborn
- The data analysts, Dawn Andersson, Stephen Berry and Christy Orcutt
- The eXPRS trainer, Coleman Trevino
- IT project oversight, Melissa Lantz
We are responsible for any system changes in eXPRS, following the cycle shown below:
 Our goal is to understand the needs of our users and ODDS, and then work together with our IT partners to improve eXPRS by:
- Exploring changes
- Defining solutions
- Creating solutions
- Testing the changes
- Releasing the changes
We also provide training for eXPRS and fulfill data requests/analysis for all of ODDS, and provide oversight on special IT projects.
Shared inboxes
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ODDSITChanges@odhsoha.oregon.gov Use this email address to begin the process of suggesting a change to eXPRS. You will receive the eXPRS Intake change request form, which you will need to complete in order to begin the process.
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OperationsDataReq@odhsoha.oregon.gov If you need eXPRS related data, please send the request to this email address.
Updates
Release 2023.1
This release contains improvements to the claim aggregation cycle, which is the automated process that creates and validates claims for payment. It will also implement a general section for the eXPRS help menu index and flyouts, which will consolidate guides that apply to all users in a single location.
eXPRS For Case Management Entities
A new, highly interactive and on-demand training course for CMEs will be available soon:
 This course covers key areas that all CMEs work in, such as authorizing case management service, creating a plan of care and much more. It is designed to go hand-in-hand with the course: An Introduction to the eXPRS payment and reporting system.
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Hello and greetings from the PAU. For our inaugural update, we will be going over who our team is and what our functions are, as well as peppering in a few tips and tricks for how to be successful in researching or communications with our unit.
The Provider administration unit is responsible for enrolling and providing customer service for DD and other program providers using the eXPRS payment and reporting system. Here is a high-level view for what our unit is responsible for:
- DD eligibility enrollment (DDEE)
- Technical assistance requests (TAR) for eXPRS
- Provider enrollment
- Employment verification for providers
- User enrollment and account management for eXPRS
- Room & board payments
- Client liability and loss of Medicaid eligibility requests
Our Team:
Vanessa Richkind, PAU manager Vanessa.Richkind@dhsoha.state.or.us
Provider enrollment unit:
- Karen Allen, Enrollment for agency providers, in-home providers, and independent providers.
- Stephanie Belmont, Enrollment for PSWs and adding determinations for criminal history checks (CHC) to eXPRS.
- Laurel Schoonover, PSW training updates, termination due to training, and CHCs sent into enrollment inbox.
- Ginger Vincent, Foster care enrollment, PSW terminations in eXPRS, and PSW enrollments.
- Dodie Wagner, PSW enrollment inbox customer service and PSW training updates.
Shared inboxes for provider enrollment unit:
Technical assistance unit (TAU):
- Devin Herigstad, TAU Lead, Level 2+3 technical assistance request (TAR), DDEE, eXPRS user enrollment, and PSW Late Fees.
- Kolette Ropp, Loss of Medicaid, client liability questions, and quality assurance for TARs and DDEE.
- David Farr, Level 1 TARs, DDEE, and admin exams.
- Brittany Hogan, Level 1 TARs, DDEE, and provider employment verification.
- Nhia Vang, User enrollment for eXPRS, account management (unlocks, maintenance), and PSW voicemail triage.
Shared inboxes for the technical assistance unit:
Room & board team
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Carol Hitchen, SSI/SSB benefits and social security administration coordination.
- Jay Clark, SSI/SSB benefits and social security administration coordination.
Beckie Brown, who was our PSW intake specialist passed away on January 16th, 2022. Many of you may have worked with Beckie or corresponded with her via the PSW.Enrollment inbox over the years. She will be missed.
Updates
PSW Training Related to SB1534
We are awaiting a decision from senior management to proceed with the termination of providers who have not completed 12 credit hours of refresher training for PSWs that had their provider number prior to 9/1/21. There will be more communication in upcoming months, so please be on the lookout for updates. All new providers (after 9/1/21) are subject to taking orientation initially and then are given 120 days to complete 8 credit hours of CORE training. New providers will be terminated if they do not complete their CORE training in 120 days.
Upcoming Universal Provider Number Portal for PSW/HCW/PCA
The Provider Administration Unit has been working closely with the team who handles the project for the universal provider number. We expect this new portal to have some amazing functionality that will really help facilitate a communication point for providers, case management entities, and state staff. Some things that we are talking about is incorporating an electronic PEAA that the providers can use an electronic signature or be able to communicate about important expirations for the provider. We are really excited for the prospects of cutting down enrollment time for onboarding new PSWs.
Technical Assistance Requests (TAR)
The TAU has put together a guide and tips document for how to successfully submit a TAR in eXPRS. It adds extra time for the requestor when our team needs to reach out to obtain additional information, so we are hoping this tool can be utilized to reduce that time.
DDEE
Please do not submit a DDEE if an individual is transferring counties and are continuing to receive DD services in the new county. Any claims and authorizations will suspend if their coding is ended. All that is needed to be done when transferring counties is to update the client prior authorizations or service prior authorizations.
Paid Leave Oregon (PLO)
The Oregon Employment Department is responsible for implementation of PLO, here is the contact information if there are any questions:
Website: paidleave.oregon.gov Email: paidleave@oregon.gov Phone: 833-854-0166
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Organizational change management (OCM) centers on the most important aspect of change – people. It is an approach to transition an organization, its groups, and individuals from their current state to a desired future state. Effective change management enables the transformation of strategy, processes, technology, and people to enhance performance and ensure continuous improvement in an ever-changing environment.
 By applying change management, organizations deliver results on each change more effectively, even while managing multiple unique changes. And an organization that works to build change competencies in their people will improve over time, maturing into a change-ready organization with the capacity to handle faster, more complex, more interdependent, and more cross-functional change and achieve strategic advantages. By proactively engaging, equipping, and supporting people during times of change, the agency demonstrates that it values its team, and the entire organization benefits as a result. Helping individuals through their individual change journeys enables organizations to:
- Address different impacts on people and teams
- Deliver people-dependent return on investment
- Close the gap between requirements and results
- Increase the likelihood of project success
- Mitigate mission-critical risk
- Limit variability in change
ODDS operations assigned a small team of people to implement organizational change management within its structure, those people are:
- Melissa Lantz (OCM team lead) who has been with ODHS since 2008 and is shifting part of her focus from project management to organizational change management.
- Patty Hahn (OCM analyst) who was new to ODHS as of November 2022 coming from DEQ and PERS where she led training and organizational change management efforts for ten years.
- Amanda Alessi (OCM analyst) who was new to ODHS as of November 2022 coming from a contract with the state of Arizona as a consultant focusing on quality improvement and change management.
Currently, the OCM Team is working to provide change management support for two IT projects, the provider enrollment and maintenance system (for both the agency and universal modules), and the case management system.
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