The state of Ohio will use the following implementation procedure for vendors/providers/Medicaid Billing Concentrators interested in establishing an EDI Trading Partner relationship with the state. 1. Preparation To gain an understanding of what is involved in an EDI implementation, identify the possible benefits, secure commitment from the stakeholders and assemble an implementation plan you must assess where you are in relation to where the State is. This phase may take several weeks or months depending on your company’s experience with EDI and your commitment to implementing EDI. The state requests that you submit the Trading Partner Profile Form during this phase of the implementation. The Profile Form will provide us with EDI contact information and help us determine your experience with EDI and the level of assistance you may need from the state EDI team.  2. Trading Partner Agreement Requirement The state will work with the potential trading partner’s EDI staff throughout the implementation phases. The state EDI team will work with you on both the business side and the technical side to exchange and review both business and technical information, documentation and begin negotiating a Trading Partner Agreement (TPA). The state has developed a model TPA to be used by all state agencies. Trading partner sign-up will take place throughout the technical implementation process. Testing between the state and the trading partner can take place while trading partner sign-ups are occurring. The state will not "go live" with a trading partner until all testing has been successfully completed and a Trading Partner Agreement has been agreed to by the responsible parties. 3. EDI Platform Selection This phase of implementation is used to evaluate and select the components required to perform EDI transmissions and is only applicable the first time a company is implementing EDI. The major components are an EDI translator and a communications link. The EDI translator converts application data to EDI formatted data or vice versa. There are a number of commercially available translator packages on the market. Trading Partners need to evaluate and select the translator that will meet their needs. 4. Data Transport The state will support several types of data transport depending upon the trading partner's need and the needs of Ohio Medicaid. FTP over ODN Shiva dial-up PPP or SLIP networking at 28.8 Kbps via 1-800 Phone Service This alternative EDI data transport model, utilizing dial-up networking technology coupled with 1-800 Phone Service poses a new and custom approach to medium volume EDI data transport. This model fits well for a limited number (i.e., over 300) of trading partners but scales poorly for a very large number of trading partners representing a high number of simultaneous network connections. This technology is free to the provider. Though the potential throughput supported would include up to 56 Kbps communication, this could not be guaranteed and would be dependent on the quality of the voice grade line utilized during the communication session negotiated by the modems. A moderate degree of security can be built in using multilevel logins. User accounts and activity would be closely monitored and highly restricted. This solution uses the proven, widely supported and popular TCP/IP protocol for routing information between network nodes (trading partner systems) utilizing standard File Transfer Protocol (FTP), a native service of the TCP/IP stack. Under this scenario the concentrator would initiate all traffic (Inbound - 837, Outbound - 835) between their node and the state of Ohio (ODN’s EDI Server) using the PUT/MPUT and GET/MGET FTP commands native to their node’s TCP/IP stack. 5. Translator Mapping and Coding During this phase the trading partner will match the requirements of their application and the specific transaction set requirements from the state (this is called mapping) and then update link their translator table with this information. The state provides the X12 segment layouts that you will need in this guide. 6. Application Development In this phase the trading partner will produce and test the application to ensure that it will effectively process your transaction. Depending on the functionality of your system, this could be a time consuming phase in the implementation process. 7. Connectivity Testing In this phase the trading partner will test their communications links. A successful test will occur if you are able to send a transaction set and able to receive a 997 transaction set in return. 8. End-to-End Testing In this phase the state and the trading partner will ensure that all participants in the process are communicating with each other properly. The state and the trading partner will mutually agree to the test period for this phase. The trading partner cannot begin "live" transmissions until end-to-end testing has been successfully completed and the TPA is signed by both parties. 9. Maintenance The state will provide a 30-day notice when changes will be made to EDI applications. These updates may or may not involve software changes. EDI updates will be sent to the designated trading partner representative at the specified location. The state requires notification if there is a change in the trading partner representative or location to which EDI updates are sent. Submit these changes to: Toyia Bullock at toyia.bullock@das.state.oh.us The state will initially transmit and/or receive Version 3040 of the 835 and 837 transaction sets. The state may not release a new version every time the ANSI X12 committee issues a new version or release of the transaction set. The state will continue to support at least three versions back from the most current version. Trading partners will be asked to upgrade when their version is older than three versions back from the current release. This is not necessarily a serial process. Several of these activities may be going on simultaneously which will improve the time it takes to become a trading partner. Ohio Front Page | ECC Home | BCMH Home | BCMH EDI Contacts