Browsing Prior Approval Responses

Providers and third-party Billing Services can search for Prior Approval (PA) requests through ePACES. If your facility is set up to enter transactions for multiple Providers, be sure that the Provider Name and ID displayed above the left-hand menu is correct for the transaction that you are searching for. Only PAs entered through ePACES can be searched upon and viewed. No paper PAs or electronic X12 278 transactions are viewable in ePACES, even if your office submitted these PAs.

Navigating the PA Response Pages

When the PA Responses link is initially selected from the left-hand menu, the Prior Approval Activity Worklist page is displayed. This page consists of the Search Criteria in the top section and the list of PAs selected as a result of the search criteria in the bottom section. When the page is initially accessed from the menu, inquiries made within the past 72 hours or 3 days is defaulted in order to display the most recent inquiries made. You may specify different or additional search criteria, choose the Search button and review the PAs displayed in the PA Response List. You may then navigate to the PA detail pages via the list of PAs by clicking on the appropriate link on Client ID. The format of the response pages depends on the PA type. Once the review of the selected PA has been completed, you are returned to the Prior Approval Activity Worklist where you can repeat the search criteria specification, search operation, PA list review, and PA navigation process.

Each of the response detail pages contains several common sections. At the top of the page is a View Original Request Information link. The main body of a response page contains a General Information tab and a Prior Approval Items tab. If the PA has not yet been reviewed by DOH (i.e., the PA is in a pending status), only the Client Information and Prior Approval Response sections are displayed. When you exit a PA detail page, you will be returned to a blank Prior Approval Activity Worklist.