July 9, 2008
Service Outage
CIGNA Government Services Part B North Carolina will be closed for operations on Monday, August 11, 2008 as we transition our Medicare processing system to the Enterprise Data Center (EDC). We are working closely with CMS and the EDC to transfer processing data and test our processes in the new data center. As a result of the transition activities, the CIGNA Government Services Part B North Carolina systems will be unavailable for processing or inquiries on August 11, 2008 as we migrate to the EDC.
What is the Enterprise Data Center (EDC)?
The EDC is a CMS contractor responsible for hosting and operating the Medicare processing systems. CMS is in the process of moving all of the Medicare contractors to one of the three EDCs over the next several months. CIGNA Government Services is moving the Part B North Carolina processing system to the EDC the weekend of August 8-11.
Why does CIGNA Government Services need to close to transition to the EDC?
As the Part B North Carolina processing system is moved to the EDC, our systems will be unavailable. Providers will be unable to access the system through the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or the EDI Claims Status Inquiry function. Because these systems will not be available, CIGNA Government Services will not be able to respond to calls through our Provider Contact Center or perform any processing of claims or inquiries on Monday August 11th. CIGNA Government Services will resume normal processing and operations on Tuesday, August 12th.
What do providers need to do?
This transition will not require providers to take any actions or make any changes. Providers need to be aware that CIGNA Government Services will not be available on August 11. Providers should continue to submit claims through the CIGNA Government Services EDI processes. P.O. boxes and telephone numbers will not be affected by this transition.
Will providers be impacted?
CIGNA Government Services does not anticipate any disruption outside of the planned outage on Monday August 11 which includes the IVR system. The IVR system is scheduled to be down on Monday, 8/11, as part of our "Dark Day" during Transition. We anticipate the IVR will return to service at 6AM Tuesday morning; however, if you encounter problems obtaining information through the IVR on the morning of Tuesday 8/12, please wait a few hours and then retry. Providers should not experience any delays in payment. CIGNA Government Services will closely monitor the progress of transition activities taking place and will provide updates via our ListServ and our Web site.
Please monitor these sources for the most up to date information.
