Electronic Case Adjudication and Processing Environment (ECAPE) Update

The appeals backlog has taken a toll not only on appellants, but also the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA), tasked to adjudicate the appeals. The appeals submission and document management processes are overdue for an upgrade in order to keep up with OMHA’s substantial workload. The new system to be put into place in early 2016 is the Electronic Case Adjudication and Processing Environment (ECAPE), which is a “dynamic workflow and case management system that supports an electronic, unified OMHA business process”. ECAPE will allow OMHA to take advantage of the effectiveness and efficiency that electronic processing has to offer; this change will be a significant benefit for the appellants requiring information from OMHA.

What this means to us; ECAPE will provide functionality for:
• Case and workload management • Exhibiting • Scheduling • Document generation • Electronic filing of requests for hearing and supporting documents • Enhanced management information and business intelligence Under ECAPE, appellants will have the ability to view the entire case file. Appellants will be able to ensure that documents submitted at the lower levels of appeal are sent to the ALJ as required under the regulations. This will negate the necessity for appellants resubmitting documents, and will assist OMHA to address its storage concerns.

Slowly we will start to see these changes take place from early 2016 to Spring 2017.

For more information, please contact Jessica Gustafson or Abby Pendleton at (248) 996-8510.