Office Ally OA Processing Application User Guide
- June 9, 2024
- Office Ally
Table of Contents
- OA Processing Application
- INTRODUCTION
- GETTING STARTED
- FILE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- TESTING WITH OFFICE ALLY
- CONNECTIVITY INFORMATION
- CONTACT INFORMATION
- CONTROL SEGMENTS/ENVELOPES
- OFFICE ALLY SPECIFIC BUSINESS RULES AND LIMITATIONS
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND REPORTS
- APPENDIX A – OFFICE ALLY RESPONSE FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
- APPENDIX B – FILE SUMMARY – INSTITUTIONAL
- APPENDIX C – EDI STATUS REPORT
- Documents / Resources
OA Processing Application
User Guide
OA Processing Application
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
Disclosure, distribution and copying of this guide is permitted, however,
changes to items found in this guide may occur at any time without notice. The
intended purpose and use of this guide is to provide information in reference
to the Health Care Claim: Institutional (837I).
Office Ally, Inc. will be referred to as OA throughout this guide.
PREFACE
This Companion Document to the ASC X12N Implementation Guides and
associated errata adopted under HIPAA clarifies and specifies the data content
when exchanging electronic health data with OA. Transmissions based on this
companion document, used in tandem with the X12N Implementation Guides, are
compliant with both X12 syntax and those guides.
This Companion Guide is intended to convey information that is within the
framework of the ASC X12N Implementation Guides adopted for use under HIPAA.
The Companion Guide is not intended to convey information that in any way
exceeds the requirements or usages of data expressed in the Implementation
Guides.
Companion Guides (CG) may contain two types of data, instructions for
electronic communications with the publishing entity
(Communications/Connectivity Instructions) and supplemental information for
creating transactions for the publishing entity while ensuring compliance with
the associated ASC X12 IG (Transaction Instructions). Either the
Communications/Connectivity component or the Transaction Instruction component
must be included in every CG. The components may be published as separate
documents or as a single document.
The Communications/Connectivity component is included in the CG when the
publishing entity wants to convey the information needed to commence and
maintain communication exchange.
The Transaction Instruction component is included in the CG when the
publishing entity wants to clarify the IG instructions for submission of
specific electronic transactions. The Transaction Instruction component
content is limited by ASCX12’s copyrights and Fair Use statement.
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Scope
This Companion document supports the implementation of a batch processing
application.
OA will accept inbound submissions that are formatted correctly in X12 terms.
The files must comply with the specifications outlined in this companion
document as well as the corresponding HIPAA implementation guide.
OA EDI applications will edit for these conditions and reject files that are
out of compliance.
This companion document will specify everything that is necessary to conduct
EDI for this standard transaction. This includes:
- Specifications on the communications link
- Specifications on the submission methods
- Specifications on the transactions
1.2 Overview
This companion guide compliments the ASC X12N implementation guide currently
adopted from HIPAA.
This companion guide will be the vehicle that OA uses with its trading
partners to further qualify the HIPAA adopted implementation guide. This
companion guide is compliant with the corresponding HIPAA implementation guide
in terms of data element and code sets standards and requirements.
Data elements that require mutual agreement and understanding will be
specified in this companion guide. Types of information that will be clarified
within this companion are:
- Qualifiers that will be used from the HIPAA implementation guides to describe certain data elements
- Situational segments and data elements that will be utilized to satisfy business conditions
- Tracing partner profile information for purpose of establishing who we are trading with for the transmissions exchanged
1.3 References
ASC X12 publishes implementation guides, known as Type 3 Technical Reports
(TR3’s), which define the data contents and compliance requirements for the
health care implementation of the ASC X12N/005010 transaction sets. The
following TR3 is referenced in this guide:
- Health Care Claim: Institutional – 8371 (005010X223A2)
The TR3 may be purchased through Washington Publishing Company (WPC) at
http://www.wpc:-edi.com
1.4 Additional Information
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the computer-to-computer exchange of
formatted business data between trading partners. The computer system
generating the transactions must supply complete and accurate information
while the system receiving the transactions must be capable of interpreting
and utilizing the information in ASC X12N format, without human intervention.
The transactions must be sent in a specific format that will allow our
computer application to translate the data. OA supports the standard
transactions adopted from HIPAA. OA maintains a dedicated staff for the
purpose of enabling and processing X12 EDI transmissions with its trading
partners.
It is the goal of OA to establish trading partner relationships and to conduct
EDI as opposed to paper information flows whenever and wherever possible.
GETTING STARTED
At Office Ally, we understand how important it is to have an easy-to-use,
efficient, and streamlined claim process for your practice. You’ll receive
payments up to 4 times faster when you submit electronically and know within
hours if an issue occurs with one of your claims.
Office Ally Benefits:
- Submit Claims Electronically to thousands of Payers for FREE
- No Contracts to sign
- FREE Set up and Training
- FREE 24/7 Customer Support
- No more paper EOB’s! Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) available for select payers
- Use your existing Practice Management Software to submit claims electronically
- Detailed Summary Reports
- Online Claim Correction
- Inventory Reporting (historical claims inventory)
A video introduction to Office Ally’s Service Center is available here:
Service Center Introduction
2.1 Submitter Registration
Submitters (Provider/Biller/etc.) must enroll with Office Ally in order to
submit claims electronically. You can enroll by contacting OA’s Enrollment
Department at 360-975-7000 Option 3, or
by initiating online registration HERE.
A registration checklist can be found on the next page.
OA Registration Check I ist.
- Complete Online Registration (or call OA’s Enrollment Dept @ 360-975-7000 Option 3)
- Sign OA’s Authorization Sheet
- Review, sign, and store OA’s Office-Ally-BAA-4893-3763-3822-6-Final.pdf (officeally.com) for your records
- Receive OA assigned User Name and Password activation link
- Schedule FREE training session (if needed)
- Review OA’s companion guide
- Review OA’s Office Ally Available Payers to determine Pager ID as well as EDI enrollment requirements
- Complete testing and review response reports (only required for 3rd party software submitters)
- Start submitting production claims!
FILE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
3.1 Accepted File Formats
Office Ally can accept and process the following file types:
- HCFA, CMS1500, UB92, and UB04 Image Files
- ANSI X12 8371, 837P, and 837D files
- HCFA NSF Files HCFA Tab Delimited Files (Format must strictly adhere to OA specifications. Contact Support for details.)
3.2 Accepted File Extensions
Similarly, Office Ally can accept files which have any of the below file name
extensions:
Txt | Dat | Zip | Ecs | Viw |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hcf | Lst | Ls | Pm | Out |
Clm | 837 | Nsf | Pmg | Cnx |
Pgp | Fil | Csv | Mpn | tab |
3.3 File Format Changes
It’s important that you continue to send the same file format when sending
claim files to Office Ally. If your file format changes due to system updates,
new computers, or different form selections, the file could fail.
Should you need to update the file format being sent to Office Ally, please
contact OA at 360-975-7000 Option 1 and
let the Customer Service Representative know that you need to have your file
format updated.
TESTING WITH OFFICE ALLY
To ensure a smooth transition to submitting electronically via Office Ally,
it’s recommended that testing be completed for all third-party software
submitters.
End-to-End testing is not available for all payers (and it’s completed only at
the payer’s request); however, you can test as often as you’d like with OA
directly.
It’s recommended that a test file containing 5-100 claims be submitted for
testing. Test claims should include a variety of claims, accounting for
different types of situations or scenarios that you deal with most frequently
(Ambulance, NDC, Inpatient, Outpatient, etc.).
After your test file has been submitted and processed, Office Ally return a
report identifying the claims that passed testing and those that may have
failed.
4.1 Test File Naming Requirements
The word OATEST (all one word) must be included the test file name in order
for Office Ally to recognize it as a test file. If the file does not have the
required keyword (OATEST), the file will be processed in our production
environment regardless of whether ISA15 is set to ‘T’. Below are examples of
acceptable and nonacceptable test file names:
ACCEPTABLE: XXXXXX.OATEST.XXXXXX.837
ACCEPTABLE: OATEST XXXXXX_XXXXX.txt
UNACCEPTABLE: 0A_TESTXXXX>C<X.837
UNACCEPTABLE: TEST XXXXXX_XXXXX.837
Test files may be submitted via file upload or SFTP transmission. When
submitting test files via SFTP, the claim type keyword must also be included
in the file name (ie 837P/8371/837D).
CONNECTIVITY INFORMATION
Office Ally offers two file exchange methods for batch submitters:
- SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol)
- Office Ally’s Secure Website
5.1 SFTP — Secure File Transfer Protocol
Setup Instruction
To request an SFTP connection, send the following information via email to
Sipporteofficeallu.com:
- Office Ally Username
- Contact Name
- Contact Email
- Software Name (if available)
- Claim Types Submitted (HCFA/UB/ADA)
- Receive 999/277CA reports? (Yes or No)
Note: If you select ‘No’, only the Office Ally proprietary text reports
will be returned.
Connectivity Details
URL Address: ftp10officeally.com
Port 22
SSH/SFTP Enabled (If asked to Cache SSH during logon, click ‘Yes’)
Files uploaded to Office Ally via SFTP must be placed in the “inbound” folder
for processing. All SFTP outbound files (including 835’s) from Office Ally
will be available for retrieval in the “outbound” folder.
SFTP File Naming Requirements
All inbound claim files submitted via SFTP must contain one of the following
keywords in the file name to identify the type of claims being submitted:
837P, 8371, or 837D
For example, when submitting a production claim file containing institutional
claims: drsmith_8371_claimfile_10222022.837
5.2 Office Ally Secure Website
Follow the below steps to upload a claim file using Office Ally’s secure
website.
- Log into www.officeally.com
- Hover over “Upload Claims”
- Click to upload the file based on your claim type (ie. “Upload Professional (UB/8371) File”)
- Click “Select File”
- Browse for your file and click “Open”
- Click “Upload”
Upon upload, you’ll receive an upload confirmation page with your FilelD
number.
Response reports will be available within 6 to 12 hours in the “Download File
Summary” section of the website.
CONTACT INFORMATION
6.1 Customer Service
Days Available: | Monday thru Friday |
---|---|
Times Available: | 6:00 am to 5:00 pm PST |
Phone: | 360.975.7000 Option 1 |
Email: | support@officeally.com |
Fax: | 360.896-2151 |
Live Chat: | https://support.officeally.com/ |
6.2 Technical Support
Days Available: | Monday thru Friday |
---|---|
Times Available: | 6:00 am to 5:00 pm PST |
Phone: | 360.975.7000 Option 2 |
Email: | support@officeally.com |
Live Chat: | https://support.officeally.com/ |
6.3 Enrollment Assistance
Days Available: | Monday thru Friday |
---|---|
Times Available: | 6:00 am to 5:00 pm PST |
Phone: | 360.975.7000 Option 3 |
Email: | support@officeally.com |
Fax: | 360.314.2184 |
Live Chat: | https://support.officeally.com/ |
6.4 Training
Scheduling: | 360.975.7000 Option 5 |
---|---|
Video Tutorials: |
https://cms.officeally.com/Pages/ResourceCenter/Webinars.aspx
CONTROL SEGMENTS/ENVELOPES
This section describes OA’s use of the interchange (ISA) and functional group
(GS control segments. Note that submissions to Office Ally are limited to one
interchange (ISA) and one functional group (GS) per file. Files may contain up
to 5000 transaction sets (ST).
7.1 ISA-IEA
Data Element | Description | Values Used | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
ISA01 | Authorization Qualifier | 0 | |
ISA02 | Authorization Code | ||
ISA03 | Security Qualifier | 0 | |
I SA04 | Security Information | ||
ISA05 | Sender Qualifier | 30 or ZZ | |
ISA06 | Sender ID | Submitter ID of your choosing. Tax ID is most common. | |
ISA07 | Receiver Qualifier | 30 or ZZ | |
ISA08 | Receiver ID | 330897513 | Office Ally’s Tax ID |
ISA11 | Repetition Separator | A | Or separator of your choosing |
ISA15 | Usage Indicator | P | Production File |
For testing, send “OATEST” in the filename.
7.2 GS-GE
Data Element | Description | Values Used | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
GS01 | Functional ID Code | ||
G502 | Senders Code | Submitter code of your choosing. Tax ID is most common. | |
GS03 | Receiver’s Code | OA or 330897513 | |
GS08 | Version Release Industry ID Code | 005010X223A2 | Institutional |
OFFICE ALLY SPECIFIC BUSINESS RULES AND LIMITATIONS
The following file specifications are taken from the 837 X12 Implementation Guide. The purpose is to provide guidance on specific loops and segments that are important to processing claims electronically. This is not a full guide; a full guide is available for purchase from Washington Publishing Company.
Submitter Information
Loop 1000A— NM1
The purpose of this segment is to supply the name of the individual or
organization submitting the file
Position| Description| Min/Max| Value| Comments
NM101| Entity Identifier Code| 2/3| 41|
NM102| Entity Type Qualifier| 1/1| 1 or 2| 1 = Person
2 = Non-Person
NM103| Organization (or last) Name| 1/35| |
NM104| Submitter First Name| 1/35| | Situational; Only required if NM102 = 1
NM108| Identification Code Qualifier| 1/2| 46|
NM109| Identification Code| 2/80| | Submitter ID of your choosing (Tax ID is
common)
Receiver Information
Loop 10008 — NM 1
The purpose of this segment is to supply the name of the organization you’re
submitting to
Position| Description| Min/Max| Value| Comments
NM101| Entity Identifier Code| 2/3| 40|
NM102| Entity Type Qualifier| 1/1| 2|
NM103| Organization Name| 1/35| OFFICE ALLY|
NM108| Identification Code Qualifier| 1/2| 46|
NM109| Identification Code| 2/80| 330897513| OA Tax ID
Billing Provider Information
Loop 2010AA— NM1, N3, N4, REF
The purpose of this segment is to supply the name, address, NPI, and Tax ID
for the billing provider
Position| Description| Min/Max| Value| Comments
NM101| Entity Identifier Code| 2/3| 85|
NM102| Entity Type Qualifier| 1/1| 2| 2 = Non-Person
NM103| Organization (or Last) Name| 1/60| |
NM108| Identification Code Qualifier| 1/2| XX|
NM109| Identification Code| 2/80| | 10-digit NPI Number
N301| Billing Provider Street Address| 1/55| | Physical Address required. Do
not send PO Box.
N401| Billing Provider City| 2/30| |
N402| Billing Provider State| 2/2| |
N403| Billing Provider Zip| 3/15| |
REAM| Reference Identification Qualifier| 2/3| El| El= Tax ID
REF02| Reference Identification| 1/50| | 9-digit Tax ID
Subscriber (Insured) Information
Loop 2010BA – NM1, N3, N4, DMG
The purpose of this segment is to supp y the name, address, member ID, DOB,
and gender of the subscriber (insured)
Position| Description| Min/Max| Value| Comments
NM101| Entity Identifier Code| 2/3| IL|
NM102| Entity Type Qualifier| 1/1| 1|
NM103| Subscriber Last Name| 1/60| |
NM104| Subscriber First Name| 1/35| |
NM108| Identification Code Qualifier| 1/2| MI|
NM109| Identification Code| 2/80| | Member ID Number
N301| Subscriber Street Address| 1/55| |
N401| Subscriber City| 2/30| |
N402| Subscriber State| 2/2| |
---|---|---|---|---
N403| Subscriber Zip| 3/15| |
DMG01| Date Time Period Format Qualifier| 2/3| 8|
DMG02| Subscriber Date of Birth| 1/35| | YYYYMMDD format
DMG03| Subscriber Gender| 1/1| F, M, or U
F = Female| M = Male
U = Unknown
Payer Information
Loop 201088 — NM1
The purpose of this segment is to supply the payer name and ID that the claim
should be submitted to (destination payer)
Please use the payer ID os listed on the Office Ally Payer List to ensure
proper routing.
Position| Description| Min/Max| Value| Comments
NM101| Entity Identifier Code| 2/3| PR|
NM102| Entity Type Qualifier| 1/1| 2|
NM103| Destination Payer Name| 1/35| |
Nm108| Identification CodeQualifier| 1/2| PI|
Nm1O9| 5-Digit Payer ID| 2/80| | Use a payer ID listed on the Office Ally
Payer list.
Patient Information (Situational)
Loop 2010CA— NM1, N3, N4, DMG
The purpose of this segment is to supply the name of the patient – if
different than the subscriber (dependent)
Position| Description| Min/Max| Value| Comments
NM101| Entity Identifier Code| 2/3| QC|
NM102| Entity Type Qualifier| 1/1| 1|
NM103| Patient Last Name| 1/60| |
NM104| Patient First Name| 1/35| |
N301| Patient Street Address| 1/55| |
N401| Patient City| 2/30| |
N402| Patient State| 2/2| |
N403| Patient Zip| 3/15| |
DMG01| Date Time Period Format Qualifier| 2/3| D8|
DMG02| Patient Date of Birth| 1/35| | YYYYMMDD format
DMG03| Patient Gender| 1/1| F, M, or U| F = Female
M = Male
U = Unknown
Attending Provider Information
Loop 2310A— NM1
The purpose of this segment is to supply the name and NPI of the provider who
is responsible for the patient’s medical care.
Position| Description| | Min/Max| Value| Comments
NM101| Entity Identifier Code| | 2/3| 71|
NM102| Entity Type Qualifier| | 1/1| 1| 1= Person
NM103| Attending Last Name| | 1/60| |
NM104| Attending First Name| | 1/35| |
NM108| Identification Code Qualifier| | 1/2| XX|
NM109| Identification Code| | 2/80| | 10-digit NPI number
Operating Provider Information (Situational)
Loop 23108 — NM1
The purpose of this segment is to supply the name and NPI of the provider who
is responsible for performing the patient’s surgery.
Position| Description| Min/Max| Value| Comments
NM101| Entity Identifier Code| 2/3| 72|
NM102| Entity Type Qualifier| 1/1| 1| 1= Person
NM103| Attending Last Name| 1/60| |
NM104| Attending First Name| 1/35| |
NM108| Identification Code Qualifier| 1/2| XX|
NM109| Identification Code| 2/80| | 10-digit NPI number
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND REPORTS
Office Ally returns the following responses and report types. As noted, the
999 and 277CA responses are only produced for claim files submitted via SFTP.
Refer to Appendix A for a list of file naming conventions associated with each
response.
9.1 999 Implementation Acknowledgement
The EDI X12 999 Implementation Acknowledgement document is used in healthcare
to provide confirmation that a file was received. A 999 acknowledgement is
returned to the submitter only for claim files submitted via SFTP.
9.2 277CA Claim Acknowledgement File Summary
The purpose of the EDI X12 277CA File Summary is to report whether or not a
claim has been rejected or accepted by Office Ally. Only accepted claims will
be sent to the payer for processing. This is an X12 formatted file which is
equivalent to the text formatted File Summary Report.
9.3 277CA Claim Acknowledgement EDI Status
The purpose of the EDI X12 277CA EDI Status report is to convey whetier or not
a claim has been accepted or rejected by the payer. This is an X12 formatted
file which is equivalent to the text formatted EDI Status Report
9.4 File Summary Report
The File Summary Report is a text (.txt) formatted file which indicates
whether claims were accepted or rejected by Office Ally. Accepted claims will
be sent to the payer for processing. Refer to Appendix B for file layout
specifications.
9.5 EDI Status Report
The EDI Status Report is a text (.txt) formatted file which is used to convey
the status of a claim after it was sent to the pager for processing. Claim
responses received from a pager will be passed on to you in the form of an EDI
Status Report. Refer to Appendix C for file layout specifications.
In addition to these text reports, you may request to also receive a Custom
CSV EDI Status Report. The Custom CSV EDI Status Report contains the claims
included in the EDI Status Report text file, along with any additional claim
data elements of your choosing.
For additional details and/or to request this option, please contact Customer
Support.
9.6 835 Electronic Remittance Advice
Office Ally will return EDI X12 835 files, as well as a text formatted version
of the remit file. Refer to Appendix D for file layout specifications.
APPENDIX A – OFFICE ALLY RESPONSE FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
Office Ally Reports and File Naming Conventions
File Summary — Professional| FS_HCFA_FILEID_IN_C.txt
File Summary — Institutional| FILEID_UBSUMMARY_YYYYMMDD.txt
EDI Status*| FILEID_EDI_STATUS_YYYYMMDD.txt
X12 999| FILEID_SubmittedFileName_999.999
X12 277CA – Professional (File Summary)|
USERNAME_FILEID_HCFA_277ca_YYYYMMDD.txt
X12 277CA – Institutional (File Summary)|
USERNAME_FILEID_UB_277ca_YYYYMMDD.txt
X12 277CA – Professional (EDI Status)| FILEID_EDI_STATUS_HCFA_YYYYMMDD.277
X12 277CA – Institutional (EDI Status)| FILEID_EDI_STATUS_UB_YYYYMMDD.277
X12 835 & ERA (TXT)| FILEID_ERA_STATUS_5010_YYYYMMDD.zip (contains 835 and
TXT) FILEID_ERA_835_5010_YYYYMMDD.835 FILEID_ERA_STATUS_5010_YYYYMMDD.txt
*Refer to Appendices B thru D for File layout specifications
**999/277CA report activation must be requested and are only available for
files submitted via SFTP
APPENDIX B – FILE SUMMARY – INSTITUTIONAL
Below are examples of the Institutional File Summary Report:
All Claims in the File Were Accepted by Office Ally
Some Claims in the File Were Accepted and Some were Rejected (errored) by Office Ally
Below are the file layout details for each of the sections that may be included in the File Summary.
FILE SUMMARY DETAIL
Field Name Start Pos Field Length
CLAIM#| 1| 6
STATUS| 10| 3
CLAIM ID| 17| 8
CONTROL NUM| 27| 14
MEDICAL REC| 42| 15
PATIENT ID| 57| 14
PATIENT (L, F)| 72| 20
TOTAL CHARGE| 95| 12
FROM DATE| 109| 10
BILL TAXID| 124| 10
NPI / PIN| 136| 11
PAYER| 148| 5
ERROR CODE| 156| 50
DUPLICATE INFO
Field Name Start Pos Field Length
Information| 1| 182
OA Claim ID| 35| 8
OA File Name| | 55
DateProcessed| –| –
CONTROL NUM| | –
Notes: 1. “-” indicates that the start position and length may vary due to length of OA file name 2. Error cods are comma delimited and correspond to the error summary in the header. 3. If the ACCNT# (CLM01) is >14 digits, the PHYS.ID, PAYER, and ERRORS start position will be adjusted.
APPENDIX C – EDI STATUS REPORT
This text formatted report is similar to the File Summary Report; however, the
EDI Status Report contains status information sent to Office Ally from the
payer. Any message OA receives from the payer will be passed on to you in the
form of an EDI Status Report.
The EDI Status Report will appear and look similar to the example shown below.
Note: In the ED! Status Report, if multiple responses come back for the
same claim (at the same time), you’ll see multiple rows containing status for
a single claim.
Below are the file layout details for the EDI Status Report.
EDI Status Report Detail Records
Field Name| Start Pos| Field Length
File ID| 5| 9
Claim ID| 15| 10
Pat. Acct #| 27| 14
Patient| 42| 20
Amount| 62| 9
Practicel D| 74| 10
Tax ID| 85| 10
Payer| 96| 5
Payer Process Dt| 106| 10
Payer Ref ID| 123| 15
Status| 143| 8
Payer Response Message| 153| 255
APPENDIX D – ERA/835 STATUS REPORT
Office Ally provides a readable text (.TXT) version of the EDI X12 835
file, a sample of which is shown below:
Standard Companion Guide Transaction Information Refers to the
Implementation Guides Based on X12
Version 005010X223A2
Revised 01/25/2023
Documents / Resources
|
Office Ally OA Processing
Application
[pdf] User Guide
OA Processing Application, OA, Processing Application, Application
---|---
References
- Healthcare Software for Your Medical Practice | Office Ally
- Healthcare Software for Your Medical Practice | Office Ally
- Home | WPC
- Search Payer List by Name, ID, & Transaction Type | Office Ally
- Free Training for All of Our Products | Office Ally
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