AGD Support

Announcement – Deactivation of Unused User Accounts (July 2018)

On Friday June 29^th, 2018, any User Login Accounts for users who have not logged in to SAMS in the past three months or longer (i.e. users who have not logged in since March 1^st, 2018) will be deactivated. We will not deactivate users whose accounts have been created since May 1^st, 2018. Please share this notice with any co-workers at your organization who may be SIMS AGD users.

Keep your User Login Account Open: If you or a user at your organization has not opened SAMS since March 1^st, 2018, but needs to maintain access to the SAMS application, please login to the Mediware portal and open SAMS.  That's all you need to do! We recommend that every user take this opportunity to review their password reset questions & answers at this time.

Below are links to relevant blog posts:

Secure Email Instructions for AGD

User Management for AGD

User Guide

Password Management

User Management (New User Requests, Deactivation of User Login Accounts)

To request either a new User Login Account for your organization or to request the deactivation of a User Login Account when a staff member has left your organization, please send a SECURE email to AGD.Support@massmail.state.ma.us. 

When contacting us, a clear, relevant & unique email subject line is most helpful.

The email should include the following information:

1. Your organization name, consistent with provider name in SAMS.
2. Your name (as the requestor)
3. Your phone number
4. First and Last Name for User Login Account (if different from you)
5. Email address for User Login Account (if different from you)
6. Telephone Number for User Login Account

Sample Subject Lines where AGD Example Care Services, Inc. represents your company name:

• Terminate User - AGD Example Care Services, Inc.
• Address Change - AGD Example Care Services, Inc.
• Name Change - AGD Example Care Services, Inc.
• New User Request - AGD Example Care Services, Inc.
• Login Trouble - AGD Example Care Services, Inc.
• Password Problem - AGD Example Care Services, Inc.

Below are links to relevant blog posts:

Secure Email Instructions for AGD

User Guide

Password Management

Rebranding of Login & Portal Pages to Mediware

Effective today, the Login and Portal pages used for SAMS access look different -- they now show the Mediware logo instead of the Harmony logo.

This reflects the acquisition of Harmony by Mediware in June 2014.  View Mediware's press release dated June 11, 2014.  No functional changes to SAMS are expected, and users will continue to login at login.harmonyis.net

The AGD User Guide has not yet been updated with these screenshots; it will be updated in the near future.

New look for Login screen

Clarification on Provider Use of Activity Reason Codes

Providers should not add or remove reason codes within Activity & Referral records. This field should only be edited by Coastline and Elder Affairs, and is strictly informational for providers. 

New Guidance Regarding Merging Duplicate Records

Occasionally a provider will inadvertently create a duplicate record in SAMS. Providers should do all they can to avoid creating a duplicate, as this adds time to the submission/review process, and delays the start of your member's services. Please consult the article on the AGD Support Blog titled Avoiding Duplicates by Careful Locate/Create for helpful tips to avoid creating duplicates.

How to display Reason Code on your dashboard widget

It is good practice to display the Reason for the Activity & Referrals in your dashboard widgets. Do this by clicking [Format Widget], moving Reason to the items to display, and moving the Reason column by click-and-drag to a visible location.

Steps to configure this view are shown below.

Webinar: Intermediate SAMS for AGD

The AGD Support team is offering a webinar on the use of SAMS to create and submit Initial Determination requests for AFC & GAFC (Adult Foster Care & Group Adult Foster Care).

Intermediate SAMS for AGD (AFC & GAFC Determinations)  

Date:     Tuesday February 9th, 2016

Time:     1:00pm -2:30pm

Update:  The webinar was quite well attended. Click here to view the Chat Transcript.  

Avoiding duplicates by careful "Locate/Create"

As you know, if you inadvertently create a duplicate consumer record as you assemble AFC/ GAFC initial determination materials, the screening will be delayed until the records can be merged by an administrator.

There are more than 700,000 consumer records in the SAMS database.  Many prospective AFC or GAFC consumers have already had an interaction with the aging & disabilities network which resulted in a SAMS consumer record.  

This Job Aid describes how to locate a consumer record, where one exists, in order to avoid creating a duplicate. 

Let's say you have logged in to SAMS and want to assemble materials for a new Initial Determination.  Before this point, you have used the MassHealth POSC to look up the consumer to verify eligibility. 

Export Assessment XML

All AGD SAMS users have been updated to enable Assessment XML export from the Production environment.  

Get XML Schema for Assessment

All AGD SAMS users have been updated so that they can get XML Schema documents (XSD) to match a SAMS Assessment. While these screenshots show the Field Test environment, AGD users can retrieve these materials from Production or Field Test.

Assessment Upload: Fact Sheet

New functionality in the Harmony SAMS application enables an authorized user to import or export XML data to or from a SAMS assessment form. Each assessment has an associated XSD schema that is available from SAMS. This functionality may be deployed to AGD organizations that store MDS-HC data in their own system-of-record, so as to reduce redundant data entry. 

Assessment Import (into SAMS) is used to create a new assessment only; assessment data is editable in SAMS after upload for review, correction, or completion by the user. 

Assessment Export (out of SAMS) can be used at any time by an authorized user to create valid XML from a particular assessment, containing all assessment responses and the assessment narrative.

New Provider AGD Orientation Document

 

This document provides orientation for new AFC/GAFC providers who will become users of the AGD Process:

Download AGD New Provider Guidance 10-14-15 - v01

Group-2 - Kickoff - July 16, 2015 Presentation Document & Recording

 Get the kickoff meeting PowerPoint here. 

Download Kick Off Training Webinar - July 16, 2015 - AGD Group 2 (pdf)

 

Click this link to view the recording of the kick off webinar: 

Download Instant Meeting 2015-07-16 (2)

 

New User Checklist - Account Set up & Practice

 

One page checklist to help new users walk through initial login and AGD process

Download Account Setup & practice checklist - v02

Group 2 Providers: Communication from AGD Support 6/23/15

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. 

_________________________________________________________________

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. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

 

Avoiding & Handling Duplicate Consumers in SAMS

As you may know the creation of duplicate consumer records in the SAMS database can cause unnecessary delays for an AFC/GAFC submission. Click the link below for details on how to avoid them. 

Download AGD - Avoiding & Handling Duplicate Consumers

Do Not Password Protect Your Assessment!

AGD providers, there is never a reason to password protect your MDS assessment, and doing so will result in determination delays. 

To remind users about this, a pop up message has been added that will appear if a user enters a password before creating their assessment. It instructs the user to reopen and remove the password immediately. 

The message appears like this: 

 

Latest AGD Announcements - Updated 9/15/15

Weekly support webinars for Group 2 users have been discontinued. Please consult the user guide for process guidelines, and view the recorded training webinar for a detailed overview. Thank you!

 

 

Determination is complete - how do I view & print the eligibility notice?

When Coastline has completed an Initial Determination and set the status of the Activity & Referral to complete, they attach a document scan of the Eligibility Notification.  You can view the scanned notice as follows:

Step 1: Open the consumer record.

There are several ways to view a consumer record: you may view an Activity & Referral from a dashboard widget, or from the list of all Activities. You can also use the Consumer List to open and view a consumer record.  These various ways are described in steps 1a through 1d.

Portal Security Update, with browser update instructions

Greetings,

Harmony will be implementing security updates on both Wednesday April 22nd &  Sunday April 26th.

These updates will affect users who currently use the Vista Operating System or who use Google Chrome or Internet Explorer as their internet browsers for all Harmony applications including SAMS, Provider Direct, Omnia Interviewer, Ombudsmanager, and Harmony for APS.

There should be no extended maintenance or downtime as a result of these updates.