Anthem Commercial Risk Adjustment Program Update: Medical chart collection for ACA members due by March 31, 2019

Each year, Anthem requests your assistance in our Commercial Risk Adjustment (CRA) Program. There are two distinct programs (Retrospective and Prospective) that work to improve risk adjustment accuracy and focus on performing appropriate interventions and chart reviews for patients with undocumented Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCC), in order to document and close the coding gaps. 

 

The CRA Program is specific to our Affordable Care Act (ACA) members who have purchased our individual and small group health insurance plans on or off the Health Insurance Marketplace (commonly referred to as the exchange).

 

With our Retrospective Program, we focus on medical chart collection.  We continue to request members’ medical records to obtain information required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  This particular effort is part of Anthem’s compliance with provisions of the ACA that require our company to collect and report diagnosis code data for our ACA membership.  The members’ medical record documentation helps support this data requirement.

 

Analytics are performed internally on claims which do not have the ICD10 code for which we suspect a chronic condition.  These medical records will be requested, reviewed, and any additional codes abstracted can be submitted to CMS to increase our risk score values.

 

Anthem network providers -- may be PCPs, specialists, facilities, behavioral health, ancillary, etc. -- may receive letters from vendors such as Inovalon, Cotiviti, and CIOX requesting access to medical records for chart review.  These vendors are independent companies that provide secure, clinical documentation services and contact providers on our behalf.  The vendors’ Web-based workflows help reduce time and improve efficiency and costs associated with record retrieval, coding and document management. 

 

We ask that our network providers provide the medical record information to the designated vendor within 30 days of the request (by March 31, 2019, at the latest).  While faxing remains our primary method for record retrieval, we offer many other electronic ways for providers to submit information.

 

Electronic options that may make medical chart collection easier for providers:

• EMR Interoperability

 

Allscripts (Opt in: signature required)

NextGen (Opt out: auto-enrolled)

Athenahealth (Opt out: auto-enrolled)

MEDENT

 

• Remote/Direct Anthem access
• Vendor virtual or onsite visit
• Secure FTP

 

The goal of these electronic options is to both improve the medical record data extraction and the experience for Anthem’s network-participating hospitals, clinics and physician offices.  If you are interested in this type of set up or any other remote access options, please contact our Commercial Risk Adjustment Network Education Representative for Virginia via her email:  Alicia.Estrada@anthem.com 

 

Thank you for your continued efforts with our CRA Program and expediting these medical chart collection requests.