The following email was sent to Group 2 AFC/GAFC providers on 6/23/15. 

It contains important information about the upcoming AGD training webinar, and details on required action items for all Group 2 providers. 

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You are receiving this message because you are confirmed as a Point-person for your AFC/GAFC provider organization. Please ensure that all appropriate staff view its contents. 

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Greetings AFC/GAFC Providers:

This message regards the statewide deployment of AGD Direct, an upgrade to the AFC/GAFC Determinations process to determine initial eligibility for AFC and GAFC.  Your organization has been identified as a member of Statewide Group 2, the second and final group of providers to be implemented.

 

The upgraded AGD process will streamline determination submission, reducing the number of days for eligibility to be determined. The AGD process takes place in SIMS – the Senior Information Management System operated by the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA).  AFC & GAFC Determinations are already recorded in SIMS – a key feature of the upgraded process is that your organization's staff will now be SIMS users who record MDS-HC data and attach digitized document scans, enabling Coastline to review all determination materials within SIMS.

Your organization is one of 142 AFC & GAFC provider organizations identified in statewide Group 2. 

 

Currently, there are 104 organizations that are live in SIMS using the new AGD process (“Group 1” providers).  As of June 19, 2015, 549 determinations have been initiated with the new process. After Group 2’s “go-live”, paper processing of AFC/GAFC determinations will be discontinued for all AFC/GAFC providers in Massachusetts.

 

The purpose of this email is to provide meeting details & 2 important action items for the Kickoff Webinar & Training for AGD Direct.

 

Webinar:	AGD Group 2 Kickoff & Initial Training
Date:	Thurs July 16, 2015
Time:	10:30 AM
How to join:	Webinar connection details are shown below, and will also be available on the AGD.Support website.   Weblink: https://join.me/andy.grigorov   Call in: 1-860-970-0010   Conference Code: 447-802-991
Attendees:	AGD Point-person(s), and other provider staff involved in the AFC/GAFC submission process

Objectives for Kickoff Webinar (Thurs Jul-16)

• Introduction to project & team members
• Overview of roles, responsibilities & timeline
• Training Demonstration:  Login, User Account setup, SAMS Overview, Determination workflow 
• Provide training and training materials/user guides.
• Discuss next steps.

Who Should Attend the Kickoff ?

We recommend that the Point-person and any additional staff involved in the AFC/GAFC referral process from each provider attend the kickoff webinar.

 

One attendee should be the AGD Point-person or an alternate.

 

Attendees should be familiar with the capabilities, tools, & processes of staff involved with clinical determinations. It may also be helpful to have someone with knowledge of your agency’s technical capabilities present.

 

We recognize that schedule coordination or conflicts may present occasional difficulties.  Thus, we will record this webinar for later review, and all materials (calendars, references, user guides, etc.) will be made available on the AGD Support website.

Role of AGD Point-person

The AGD Point-person is primary point-of-contact for all project communications between your organization and the ELD/ OLTSS Project Team. You are expected to disseminate information to your organization's end-users, and to seek clarification from the Project Team whenever necessary.  Point-people are the designated voice of an organization; communicating with the AGD Project Team via standard protocols, for all users in the organization.   Organizations may wish to identify two (2) point-people for continuity during vacations or at other locations. Note: all email communication from your Point-person(s) to AGD Support must be sent using secure email.

 

The point-person should thoroughly understand your organization's assessment process for AFC or GAFC applicants: from initial referral, collection of assessment documentation (Physician Summary Form, Request For Services, etc.), RN's onsite assessment, MDS-HC data records, and post-submission communication with Coastline Elder Services.

 

The Point-person is responsible for user account access administration for the organization, identifying colleagues who are potential SIMS users because of their participation in the determinations process, and communicating this information to the Project Team. Point-people will ensure that end-users set up their User Accounts correctly and are able to manage their own password resets and security questions. "Points" are also responsible for ensuring that User Accounts are terminated when necessary, and other aspects of maintaining Administrative Security to Protected Health Information.

 

The AGD Point-person trains end-users within their own organization, after training sessions with the Project Team.  The Project Team will work to ensure that end-user training materials are effective, appropriate, clear and usable, and readily available.  Point-people are expected to raise issues and identify gaps or improvements in training and other implementation materials.

 

Point-people are the first line of user support within their organization:  to help end-users resolve password issues; perform basic troubleshooting; and incidental training to enable successful use of SIMS.  If a technical issue with the application emerges, the Point-person will gather details and communicate with support staff at ELD/OLTSS.

 

The role of the AGD Point-person will continue after implementation ends and the processing becomes routine, though personnel may change.

What's Next: Implementation Overview

 

Note:  check AGD Support Blog (https://agd-support.mass-aging-disability.org)  for project updates.

 

Date	Task	Note
As soon as possible	Identify all AGD users at your organization	Now that all Point-persons have been identified, organizations must provide a list of all users within their organization who will need access to the new AGD process
Thurs, Jul-2	Additional User Account Info Is Due	See 2 Your Action Items below.
Thurs, Jul-16 10:30 AM	Group 2 Kickoff Webinar & Training	(webinar for Point-people and all new AGD Users) Kickoff meeting:  Project Overview, Process Demonstration, Training & Support Webinar connection information available above
Thurs, Jul-16 – Thurs, Jul-31	AGD Practice Period	Access to the SIMS “sandbox”, the SIMS testing database.  User Account information will be emailed to each user after the kick off webinar All users perform 1st-time account setup; begin practice workflow processing in SAMS (sandbox environment).
Tues, Jul-21	Group 2 Weekly AGD Support webinars begin	First in a series of ongoing 45-minute weekly webinars, Tuesdays at 10 AM. Review of selected topics, Q&A, etc. Check AGD Support Blog regularly for any schedule changes
Wed, Jul-30 – Thurs, Jul-31	End Practice Period
Wed, Jul-30 – Thurs, Jul-31	Go-Live	All User Accounts set to live SIMS environment. All determinations via SIMS, no more paper submissions.

 

Your Action Items

1. Acknowledge receipt of this email & RSVP to kickoff/training webinar. If you have read this far: before you do anything else, please send a quick reply to agd.support@state.ma.us to acknowledge your organization has received this note.

 

1. Identify all SIMS end-user candidates in your organization that will participate in the new AGD process. Gather the following information and send to AGD Support by close of business Thursday, July 2: Full name / email address / job title.

 

You must also indicate that the user’s computer system meets the minimum system requirements to operate SIMS. See the attached document "Harmony Supported System Configurations – SAMS".  This should be a quick review.  Yellow flags:  tablet computers, non-Windows computers, computers more than 3 or 4 years old. Questions?  Email us at agd.support@massmail.state.ma.us. 

 

An Example of a GAFC provider’s email message to AGD Support responding to Action Items 1 & 2 is shown below:

 

_________________________________

To: AGD Support

[subject line]: Secure: AGD User List – Frank’s GAFC Co.

 

Hello, here are the additional users at Frank’s GAFC Co. who will be involved in the AGD process:

 

First name	Last name	Email address	Job title	User's computer meets minimum requirements?
Sam	Jones	sjones@gafc-co.com	Coordinator	yes
Becky	Yodel	byodel@gafc-co.com	Admin Assist.	yes
Fred	Woods	fwoods@gafc-co.com	Specialist	yes

 

 

Frank Seaver, Frank’s GAFC Co. Point-person

 

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*Feel free to copy the table above, remove the example information, and use in your email to AGD Support.

 

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Communications

The main project email address is agd.support@massmail.state.ma.us. All project related communication should be sent to this email address.

For information on how to submit an issue report to AGD Support that will aid in a quick resolution, please consult this article on the AGD Blog: https://agd-support.mass-aging-disability.org/2015/03/27/writing-a-clear-issue-report/

 

Thanks!

We look forward to working with you!

 

The AGD Project Leads:

 

Pam Gardner AGD Project Manager GAFC Program Manager

Andy Grigorov AGD Project Manager Elder Affairs IT

Jim Ospenson AGD Project Manager Elder Affairs IT