Organization Overview

The N-FOCUS System includes a file of Organizations of interest to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Definitions:

Organization - An organization is a business, company, or agency of interest to DHHS. This includes individuals who have their own business, or individuals that provide services to persons eligible for DHHS services.

Related Persons - An individual who is associated with an Organization.

Service Approval - An agreement between DHHS and an organization for goods or services. A Service Approval is required to authorize service provisions and subsequent payment. Service Approvals are involved with Organizations in three roles. For most Service Approvals, one Organization will fulfill all three roles. Some Service Approvals will have more than one Organization involved. The following is a definition of the roles:

Service Approval Owner: The owner of the Service Approval has primary responsibility for fulfilling the terms of the Service Approval. Income from the provision of service goes to the owner.
Service Approval Payee: Payment is mailed to the payee; however, the income is for the owner.
Service Approval Provider: The provider actually provides the service governed by the terms of the Service Approval.

Organization Name:

It is very important that organizations be added to N-FOCUS correctly. The organization file is used for:

IRS Notification: The Internal Revenue Service requires information about any payments made to the "owner" of an organization that receives payments from DHHS for services provided. It is important that the organization name and SSN or ID# that DHHS is using match the organization name and SSN or FID# that is on record with the IRS. If they do not match DHHS is fined by the IRS.
Easy Identification: When the correct organization name and SSN or EID# is used in the Organization file, it is easier to identify the correct provider organization when doing a search and completing a service approval or authorization.

Resource Development Workers or Social Service Workers with designated responsibility for RD activity in their service area add organizations to the organization file. Other N-FOCUS users rarely need to add an organization to the system. Anyone who creates a new organization in N-FOCUS needs to understand what information to enter and how to enter it. Before adding an organization it is very important to thoroughly search to see if the organization is already in the organization. This process is used to avoid the creation of duplicate organizations or organizational information.

To open the organization file, select the Organization icon from the N-FOCUS Main Menu.