About CMSconnect
In compliance with the the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, CMSconnect is an application that translates Medicare/Medicaid Eligibility Inquiry forms into a standard HIPAA EDI 270 format. Using a secure connection to the CMS Medicare Data Center for any specific Medicare eligibility state, CMSconnect first delivers the translated 270 form and receives and translates the 271 form.

CMSconnect is being readied for deployment to health care providers around the U.S. Watch this space for more information about this unique and useful product.

CMSconnect, working in conjunction with AT&T's Global Network Services (AGNS) Network Client, allows simple dial up connection in many cases from the more than 3,000 local access phone numbers. Once the connection is made CMSconnect will take the raw entered data, patient name, social, sex, DOB and with that information create a sophisticated ANSI standard 270 information inquiry document. Once the document is created, the user can verify this is what is to be sent, with a click of a button, the connection is opened to a specified port, the 270 is transmitted and within milliseconds a formatted 271 is returned. CMSconnect then takes the formatted 271, parses the pertinent information and delivers the returned information in a user friendly format.

With CMS requiring that providers send these EDI documents by Oct 2003, time is of the essence in getting your facility ready to comply. April 14th, 2003 found many providers confronting your patients with HIPAA release forms, Business Associates forms, etc., and this is just the beginning! American Health Data Services provides a simple and elegant solution. CMSconnect!

Background
CMSconnect has been designed for very simple to use electronic transmission of Medicare Eligibility request forms. This product is perfect for those health care providers that have been using the phone to call for eligibility. Now with one simple input of information the health care provider personnel can electronically send and receive a correctly formated EDI document with no EDI experience!

More importantly though, the CMSconnect provides a very simple connection tool that behind the scenes achieves streaming socket connections to specific CMS data center ports, opens the listener with the CMS security prefix and transmits the 270 document. Keeping the port open long enough for the returned 271 response.

CMSconnect is also available for those providers that already have translation software but do not have the tool to open the streaming socket connection which is required to access the CMS data centers. With CMSconnect, a desktop user, or an EDI translation software package can acheive connectivity without having to re-create this important application.