VA recently established a new VHA TRAIN MISSION Act curriculum training site (VHA TRAIN MA) to host community provider MISSION Act training and accredited, no-cost, online courses for community providers who wish to partner with VA to provide care for Veterans.

VHA TRAIN MA hosts the MISSION Act Section 131, Community Care Provider Opioid Safety Initiative  training course which is required to be completed by community providers with opioid prescribing privileges. In addition, the MISSION Act Section 133 general overview, Community Care Provider - A Perspective for Veteran Care course, which is not required but is highly recommended for all community providers to complete, is hosted on this site.  

Community providers must create an account with VHA TRAIN MA and include their unique National Provider Identifier (NPI).  For other assistance or help with VHA TRAIN MA curriculum account creation, please contact the MA help desk at support@missionact.org.

In an effort to deliver the best possible customer service, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has modernized its payment inquiry system! Our new Customer Engagement Portal (CEP) will replace the Vendor Inquiry System (VIS), effective June 2020. CEP will deliver improved access management, more efficient queries, while maintaining VA’s rigorous security requirements.

In response to VA’s resolute commitment to protect our Veteran’s privacy information, we partnered with AccessVA – a solution for accessing many of VA’s online services. AccessVA’s credentialing process for non-VA employees is through ID.me – a platform that provides best-in-class identification capabilities. ID.me’s strict identity proofing paired with their two-factor authentication allows us to better protect Veteran’s sensitive data community providers payment information. You will experience enhanced measures to register and login resulting in a significant security improvement for all involved.

We invite you to start enjoying the benefits of CEP now, before VIS’s retirement in June 2020. Click on the link to get started: https://www.cep.fsc.va.gov/

For our customers who use VIS for electronic invoicing, we will soon begin a campaign to transition this service to the Tungsten Network. Tungsten is currently providing e-invoicing to VA customers free of charge. If you want more information or do not wish to wait, you may register here: https://www.tungsten-network.com/VeteransAffairs/.  Once your information is confirmed (typically 3-5 business days) you can continue e-invoicing the VA, free of charge.

If you need assistance with the ID.me registration process, please access the VA’s dedicated ID.me support page at: va.id.me/. A vast amount of information is already available on the support page for your review. You can also contact ID.me support through email, chat, or by submitting an online inquiry by clicking Contact Us.

If you have additional questions regarding our Customer Engagement Portal, please email us at VAFSCCSHD@va.gov or call us at 1-877-353-9791

The War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC), in conjunction with Post Deployment Health Services (PDHS), offers a monthly webinar series since 2014 that community providers can now access. WRIISC/PDHS’s webinar series was designed to provide the knowledge needed by providers to addresses post deployment health concerns of returning combat Veterans.

Historically, the WRIISC clinical focus is to help post deployment Veterans from all combat eras with the most complex, difficult to diagnose or medically unexplained health concerns and to address the unique exposure concerns Veterans have. Our researchers and clinicians work together to identify new problems in returning Veterans and use knowledge gained to identify promising treatments and implement the most current evidence-based care.

One of our core functions is educate Veteran providers about how to best respond to Veterans presenting with deployment health concerns.  Since the passage of the VA MISSION Act in 2018, and the improved access standards available to Veterans, community providers may have the opportunity to see more post-combat Veterans with unique concerns in their clinics. In order to effectively respond to and treat these concerns, community providers need the most up-to-date knowledge. The subjects of our one-hour webinars include; environmental exposures, chronic multi-symptom illness/Gulf War Syndrome, airborne hazards and evidenced based interventions to treat our post- deployment Veterans to maximize their health outcomes. Presenters of our webinars are considered experts in their respective fields.

All the webinars are free and accredited. To register visit: https://vha.train.org/vha/course/1088275.

We look forward to your participation in our webinars and providing you with information needed to give your Veteran patients optimal care!

HealthShare Referral Manager (HSRM) is the VA’s new system that is streamlining the community care referral and authorization management process for Veteran care. This month, we feature Megan Stauffer, a community provider from In-Home Care Connection, to share her experience using HSRM thus far.

Question: How did you hear about HSRM?

Megan: Our administrator started receiving emails that would say, “You have received a referral from a VA provider, please log into HSRM to view the referral.” We really didn’t know what that meant and so we did a little bit of research and we were able to discover what HSRM was.

Question: When you first started using HSRM did you attend the weekly HSRM trainings that we offer?

Megan: Yes, I attended the webinar. The webinar alone was enough for me to get started using HSRM.

Question: Can you tell us how you coordinated with the sites you’re working with at VA? How did you tell them that you were using HSRM?

Megan: When the VA would call me, they would tell me when they’re going to send over a referral. I would then let them know that I am using HSRM. I’m loving that more of them are going through HSRM because we can view all the referrals at once.

Question: How has HSRM improved how you process referrals?

Megan: HSRM has drastically cut down phone calls and faxes that I’m having to receive on a daily basis just because all the information I need is literally right there at my fingertips. I can’t wait for everyone else to start using HSRM because it’s going to be great!

Question: How many referrals have you processed in HSRM?

Megan: We have been using HSRM since mid-September. As of today [Nov 23, 2019], we have processed 133 referrals in HSRM. 

Upcoming Training Sessions

Registration for one of the weekly introductory trainings can be completed by logging into VHA TRAIN. Please note that a VHA TRAIN account is needed to register. Training is available at no cost and is hosted by HSRM staff who are ready to answer your questions!

January 16, 2020:  VHA Office of Community Care Overview -  This webinar provides an overview of community care programs and policies, focuses on how to file clean claims, and goes into other topics such as eligibility, referral, top rejection reasons and other provider issues.  Register for the webinar.

January 23, 2020:  Veteran Suicide Prevention Resources for Providers   - The purpose of this training will be to inform community providers about resources available to them as they treat Veterans at risk for suicide. They will be informed about VA's Suicide Risk Management Consultation program, which is available to community providers and health care teams at no cost. Additionally, they will learn about online resources, tools and training related to topics such as lethal means safety and postvention support after suicide loss.

Registration available at https://www.va.gov/COMMUNITYCARE/providers/EDU_Training.asp#webinars 

Go to the VA's community care Provider Education & Training  Resources web page for a full listing of upcoming webinars and links to recordings of past webinars.