The following information is provided by Novitas Solutions.

Informational Alert:
July 2014 Release “Dark Days for the Common Working File (CWF) Hosts
For the upcoming July 2014 Release, due to Change Request (CR) 8546 – Addition of New Fields and Expansion of Existing Model 1 Discount Percentage Field in the Inpatient Hospital Provider Specific File (PSF) and Addition of New Fields and Renaming Payment Fields in the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Pricer Output and User CR 30015 – IBM Hardware Data Compression Conversion (Phase 1), the CWF Hosts will be performing a history conversion. To accommodate the anticipated duration of this activity and to ensure the completion of the history conversion, weekly/monthly/quarterly processing, installation of the July 2014 Quarterly Release, and scheduled data center maintenance, there will be one “gray” day occurring on Wednesday, July 2, 2014, and two “dark” days on Thursday, July 3, 2014 and Saturday, July 5, 2014. Note: July 4, 2014 is a holiday.

Below is a list of scheduled events for the release:

• CWF Hosts will implement the Out of Service Area (OSA) drop for 06/30 through 07/03. 
• CWF Hosts will not perform any cross reference files (XREF) or Health Insurance Correction Record (HICR) transactions from 06/30 through 07/04. 
• 07/02 will be considered a “Gray” day for the CWF Hosts. This means the CWF online Health Insurance Master Record (HIMR) inquiry and the Beneficiary Data Streamlining (BDS) transaction will be available for all MACs. In addition, CWF Hosts will process In Sector Area (ISA) claims during the day on 07/02 and deliver response files back to the MACs in the old format for 07/03 night’s processing. 
• CWF Hosts will hold the claims received from MACs on 07/02 and 07/03. 
• 07/03, 07/04 (holiday) and 07/05 will be “Dark” days for CWF Hosts with no on lines available, which means that contractors will not have access to the HIMR inquiry and BDS transaction. 
• CWF Host will install the CWF July quarterly release on 07/04. 
• CWF Host will run the CWF SSM conversion and combine the held 07/02 and 07/03 claims administration contractor files on 07/07 and will send the combined files to the Fraud Prevention System (FPS) in the new version. 
• 07/07, the on lines are available for CWF Host under the new version. CWF Host will receive responses from the FPS by the afternoon of 07/07. The FPS response files will be loaded for CWF ISA processing on the night of 07/07. Response files will be sent to contractors in the new version for 07/08 night’s processing. 

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