Announcements

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2023

September - Delays in EHC Charges Posting to Compass Grant Accounts

  • ISSUE:  We have experienced delays in EHC charges posting to Compass grant accounts.  In addition to the delays, some rates have not utilized discounts available for research activities. 
  • ROOT CAUSES: We have identified the following causes of the issues encountered:
    • Since EHC’s conversion to Epic on 10/1/2022, charges have not been sent to the Compass grant account. This was due to a loss of connection from Cerner to the EHC Clinical Data Warehouse that previously generated a report to complete journal entries in Compass. 
    • The research discounted fee schedule was not uploaded to Epic during the system conversion.
  • SHORT-TERM ACTIONS:As a short-term solution to process as many charges as possible in fiscal 2023, a file was created to send hospital billing (HB) charges to Compass to the appropriate grant account. The hospital billing charges are assessed at a 75% discounted rate. These files were posted on 9/2/23.We are continuing to work on reconciling items and will have any applicable remaining entries posted as soon as possible.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU: Carefully review all of the HB charges to your grant accounts for accuracy. Corrections may be processed in September / October of fiscal 2024 and will be posted in fiscal 2024.  If during your review you detect charges posted to the wrong award budget period or SpeedType, contact your RAS representative for assistance with corrections. If you do not know the appropriate project to offset, please contact the EHC Clinical Trials Billing Department (CTBD) through one of their email mailboxes to ensure charges are reviewed in a timely manner:

Hospital: euh.business.office.clinical.trials@emoryhealthcare.org
Clinic:specialty.clearance@emoryhealthcare.org

FUTURE STEPS PLANNED:We are continuing to assess the physician billing (PB) charges and are actively in the process of preparing additional charges. We will notify you when this occurs so you can also review the PB charges to your grant accounts.

  • University and Healthcare staff from CTBD, Finance, RGC, RAS, OIT, and OCR are working diligently together to identify solutions to address the root causes of these issues as well as improve the overall process of clinical billing.

Thank you for your patience during this transition to Epic and OnCore. We are all committed to resolving these issues as quickly as possible for you.

Best regards,
Edwin Bemmel, Robin Ginn, and Tonya Jenkins

 

July - OCR Invoicing OnCore-tracked activities

Great news! OCR Invoicing and IT worked to create a successful interface between OnCore and ERMS.  Starting July 10, 2023, we can generate invoices for all past and future OnCore-tracked activities in ERMS.  Study teams should continue to track in OnCore. Please ensure your team does not re-track items previously tracked in ERMS.  Any activity item occurring before 10/1/2022 and tracked in OnCore will not be considered for invoicing unless the CRC directly contacts the CRFM assigned to the protocol.   

OCR Invoicing will continue to review every study account monthly, which includes invoicing, payment reconciliation, subject stipend/reimbursements, vendor payables, and reporting; however, we will no longer send a SOT to the study team. 

From now on, OCR Invoicing will upload the following to OnCore Financials Console as a Financial Attachment: 

  1. Financials – OCR Tracking Reminders 
  2. Financials – OCR Invoicing Monthly Statement of Transactions 
  3. Financials – OCR Invoicing Monthly Invoice 
  4. Financials - Sponsor Remittance (remittance provides itemized details of sponsor payment) 

 The following provides instructions to access the documents above: 

Access OnCore Financial Consoles> Attachments>Financial Attachment Details  

Invoicing and payment reconciliation for all OnCore-tracked activities will be completed by September 1, 2023. 

Feel free to contact @Coleman, Sherry D. directly should you have questions. Thank you for your continued patience as we continue this transition. 

June -  New: OCR Clinical Research eForm

The Office for Clinical Research (OCR) announces its new Clinical Trials PreStudy eForm Application.  This new application replaces several forms that you use via a paper format.
Effective Monday, June 25, 2023, the new Clinical Research eForm will be available to submit new applications for the following forms:
  • OCR Submission Form
  • ERMS Activation Form or Clinical Trials Activation Only Form
  • Clinical Research Key Point Summary (CRKP) Checklist
  • Emory Medical Laboratory (EML) Checklist
  • Radiology Checklist
  • Subject Tracking Only
  • Expanded Access
If the study has already been submitted via paper format, please DO NOT resubmit it electronically, as this will cause a delay in your application process.
For additional resources and to access the new Clinical Research eForm, visit our webpage at https://ocr.emory.edu/resources/systems/ct-prestudy-eform-app.html.  

June -  Update: OnCore Invoicing

Great news! We are steps closer to correcting the invoicing challenges that resulted from OnCore implementation. Over the past couple of months, OCR Invoicing and IT worked together to create an interface between OnCore and ERMS.  This new interface will allow the invoicing team to begin generating invoices for all past and future OnCore-tracked activities in ERMS.  Study teams should continue to track in OnCore as usual. Please ensure your team does not re-track items previously tracked in ERMS.  Any activity item occurring before 10/1/2022 and tracked in OnCore will not be considered for invoicing unless the CRC directly contacts the CRFM assigned to the protocol.

We will send an official announcement when the data import is completed and invoicing begins. You will also receive instructions on where and how to access the current Summary of Transactions and any Invoices generated for activities tracked in OnCore after 10/1/2022.

Feel free to contact @Coleman, Sherry D. directly should you have questions. Thank you for your continued patience as we continue this transition.