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September Message from Benjamin Altose, Acting Director of Operations
Team,
It’s been a little over 3 months since our shift to the VHA Office of Finance, and in that time, you all have demonstrated an admirable commitment to mission delivery in the face of large-scale organizational changes.
We are now serving our nation’s Veterans and their families in six divisions: Western Region, Central Region, Eastern Region, Clinical Review, Internal Controls & Appeals, and eCAMS Management. Even though we’re no longer DO POM, we are still Payment Operations at the end of the day, and I want to thank each and every one of you for continuing to sustain accurate and timely claims payment for Veterans and providers.
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For the foreseeable future, we can expect to maintain our current day to day operations. For those of you who interact with our colleagues within IVC, you may have opportunities to meet and work with new team members as IVC continues to adjust to their reorganization. These are dynamic times and the recent passage of H.R. 3967 (commonly known as the PACT Act) will likely result in changes to the claims we process and reporting we provide. We will be sure to communicate any changes directly.
We want to ensure you all have support and clarity from leadership, which is why we are exploring a variety of communication avenues. We are resuming sending out this monthly newsletter. We also plan to have quarterly town halls at the national level to keep everyone informed of the latest updates throughout Payment Operations as a whole. Should you have additional suggestions for how and what types of information you would like to receive, please share your suggestions with your Regional Officer.
Thank you for your hard work, continued resilience, and commitment to the mission as we navigate these new changes together!
-Ben
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Friendly reminder to review your employee data in VATAS and your Leave & Earnings Statements each pay period to ensure everything is correct, especially in light of the recent reorganizations. Some employees have had issues with inaccuracies in their duty location or locality pay, so please keep a close eye on your data to ensure everything is in order. |
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The mission of 104P Operations is to administer and execute claims processing functions for VHA community healthcare claims in service to Veterans, their families, and community providers in a quick and correct manner.
Our vision is to meet and exceed industry standards of timeliness and accuracy through advancements in technology and automation, while providing world class service to Veterans, their families, and community providers with a competent and caring workforce.
Payment Center Locations
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104P Operations Key Leadership Chart
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This month’s HRO Theme is Learn, Inquire and Improve. Creating an organization that values learning and continual improvement is essential to becoming a High Reliability Organization. We in 104P Ops aim to become a true learning organization – one that is skilled in encouraging continuous learning and creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge. This capability will allow us to improve our processes, more effectively collaborate with one another, and ultimately, more effectively serve our nation’s Veterans and their families. To learn more about September’s Theme of the Month, please explore the resources below.
Links
HRO Theme of the Month
Learn, Inquire and Improve overview video
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Congratulations and thank you to all these staff on their milestones. We are lucky to have you!
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Celebrate your Colleagues!
Do you have a colleague or team you'd like to specially recognize in this newsletter? Do you have a personal or professional milestone that you'd like to share? Please let us know so that we can all celebrate the accomplishments of the wonderful members of Payment Operations!
To submit an individual or group for this Kudos portion of upcoming newsletters, please contact Emma.Podkul@va.gov.
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What's New From the Internal Controls & Policy Teams? |
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Since the transition to Finance in June of this year, the newly formed Internal Controls & Policy Teams have been collaborating with former POM QA and current IVC QA staff, RO/AM/DAM, TWD and other vital stakeholders to identify the need for new audits (ECR, CNH, P2E, etc.) and/or revise and update existing audits to stay current with the changing environment. We are also working with these same stakeholders on updating the existing Payment Operations & Management: Quality Assurance SharePoint to reflect the realignment of services under Payment Operations. These developments will serve to continue to support all areas of Payment Operations to improve the accuracy of payments and quality of service we provide our customers. On behalf of the entire Internal Controls & Training (IC&T) Teams, we would like thank all of you for your patience, feedback and input the past few weeks and look forward to supporting the entire Payment Operations team moving forward.
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Face to Face Meeting in Denver, CO!
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The 104P Operations Team gathered for a Face to Face Meeting in Denver, CO in August.
From left to right: Jesus Murrieta, Northwest Deputy Area Manager; Jennifer DaSilva, eCAMS Program Manager; Rachel Hoffman, Operations Specialist; Benjamin Altose, Acting Director of Operations; Samantha Brown, Central Regional Officer; Jose Portuondo, Eastern Regional Officer; Jennifer Osborne, Acting Nurse Manager; Neil Narine, Internal Controls & Appeals Program Manager. Not Pictured: Mary Bisom, Western Regional Officer.
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The 104P Operations Team participated in a fun icebreaker activity to kick off a strategy session and to meet the 104P Support Operations management team.
From top left around the circle: Jen Osborne, Ben Altose, Jose Portuondo, Neil Narine, Perry Yoshimiya, Shauntye Alexander, Rachel Mitchell.
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During the month of August and September, the training team got back to the basics. From basic eligibility to identifying authorization types through referral patterns and timely filing, the team provided refreshers aimed to improve audit accuracy rates and less touches on claims prior to adjudication. The training team also helped to facilitate Microburst: ECR with their TWD counterparts.
For the future training schedule, please be sure to reference our training calendar: Trainer Calendar - Calendar (sharepoint.com). For training requests, please email VHA104PInternalICSupervisors@va.gov
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Did you enjoy reading this newsletter? Do you have an untapped passion for reporting and news? Then get INVOLVED! There is opportunity to support the monthly drafting process for the 104P Newsletter to ensure that the information is relevant and interesting to all staff. We'd love to get your input, so if you're interested, please reach out to Emma.Podkul@va.gov. |
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