SPARCS reporting: 100% accuracy is within your reach

Trouble fulfilling Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) requirements?

Fulfilling the state’s requirements to report patient data to the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System can be a complex, confusing task. A single department’s data volume, let alone an entire facility’s, can be overwhelming. Many ambulatory surgery centers don’t even know that SPARCS reporting requirements apply to them.

The New York State Department of Health requires hospitals and ASCs to submit clinical, billing, admission, discharge and transfer data to SPARCS. The state uses your patient data to track and report on community trends and set more accurate reimbursement rates. But what do you get other than a repeating cycle of submission error alerts on claims that have already been paid?

SPARCS coordinators face many challenges 

• new state requirements;
• inconsistent file upload formats; 
• updated coding every quarter; and
• error-free submission requirements.

DataGen can help you meet these challenges with our UDS (UIS Data System™) software, SPARCS expertise and analytics-first approach.

SPARCS, reimagined

UDS is the most widely used SPARCS submission tool in the State of New York. It’s a user-friendly, web-based compliance solution that:

submits clean data directly to the state;
flags and corrects most data errors pre-submission; and
returns only the errors that remain and can be resolved.

With UDS, everyone gets what they need: cleaner, faster, better SPARCS submission. No back and forth. No repeated fail reports.

The three benefits of cleaner, faster, better

SPARCS data submission can seem more art than science — especially when your coordinators are juggling multiple roles. Here are just a few of the ways that DataGen’s software, team and service take the burden off your team’s plate and give back more time in their day:

1. Reduce SPARCS reporting time by as much as 99%

Some UDS users report their SPARCS reporting time was reduced from two weeks to 15 minutes. What could your team do with nearly 80 extra hours per month?

UDS helps your team reclaim significant time and automates almost the entire SPARCS process: 

✅Formatting patient data upload: DONE.

✅Exporting and maintaining SFTP files: DONE.

✅Submitting files weekly: DONE.

✅ Hundreds of new codes: DONE.

✅ Error correction: DONE.

DataGen identifies and fixes all your data errors: from easy-to-miss errors (e.g., ZIP code glitches, exempt claim codes) to more complex (e.g. cpt/revenue code alignments, diagnosis codes with age/gender restrictions, usage of DX codes as principal or secondary, National Drug Code validity).

2. Get current, even if you’re delinquent

If your facility receives a Statement of Deficiency from DOH, it goes on your facility’s public record. Even if you have two years of delinquent SPARCS data, DataGen can upload it all into UDS and get it submitted in less than a week.

3. Plan for the long term

Having clean, up-to-date SPARCS data is critical when it’s time to expand and submit a Certificate of Need. SPARCS data also help benchmark your performance against other facilities.

The bottom line: “One and done” data submission and increased operational capacity using software that does SPARCS all day, every day.

Ready for easy? Reach out to DataGen today to see how UDS can help your facility. We’ll also be at the Long Island Health Information Management Association conference on April 28. Stop by and say hi!