United Service Installation Instructions

United Service Installation Instructions

Document Revision History

Version / Date / Author / Description
1.0 / November 2008 / Whitt Batcheler / Initial Draft

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Overview

Installation Instructions

United Service Implementation Checklist

Creating a United EDI Account

United Service Setup

Registry Configuration

eGateway Configuration

Partners File

Mapping File

Starting the Service

Sending Test Transactions

Verifying Test Transactions

Switching to Production

Wrap-up

Overview

This document contains the instructions on how to setup and configure the United Connector service for your site. This service supports the real-time eligibility and claim status inquiry transactions.

The United service is an instance of a NEHEN EDISimpleService (or secondary service) that, using Connectivity Director, communicates with United to deliver eligibility and claim status inquiry transactions. This service receives transactions from an eGateway service on a locally-defined inbound port, queues them to a file-based queue, and dequeues and processes the transactions using separate threads. For each transaction found in the queue, the service opens a connection to Unitedand then sends the message using https. The service waits for the response and then returns the appropriate response to the eGateway service. If the connection to eGateway is down, the service queues the responses until eGateway is available again. The service also requeues 270 and 276 transactions depending on the response from Unitedand generates and returns an error response transaction if the MaxRetries limit for a transaction is reached. A United service installation document was created so that it could be kept separate from this document.

Until further notice, the service should only be used for claim status inquiry transactions since eligibility transactions should continue to be sent to United via MedAvant.

Installation Instructions

Following the instructions in this document configures the United service for eligibility and claim status inquiry transaction submission to United. The instructions do not include installation of the service on the server, which should have been done as part of the NEHEN 11.8 upgrade. If not, please let NEHEN Support know. The service must be installed before running through the instructions in this document can begin. Once the configuration has been completed on each server, it is required that thorough testing of the service is completed.

The instructions in this document configure eligibility and claim status inquiry transactions to United. Only claim status inquiry transactions should be sent to United at this time. Instructions to configure eligibility in this document exist as well, so be wary when going through the instructions. Sites should hold off on the eGateway Mapping changes for eligibility until further notice.

UnitedService Implementation Checklist

Task / Description
Creating an United EDI Account / This task will create the United EDI ID for your site. This ID will be used to submit transactions.
Setup Registry Settings / This task will configure the registry based on your site’s information.
Mapping and Partners file changes for real-time transactions / This task will verify the eGateway is configured to process these transactions.
Verification of Test Transaction / This task will verify your site is able to submit a test transaction to the payer.
Switch to Production / This task will switch your from test mode to production mode.

Creating a United EDI Account

If your site does not have a United EDI account, then it is necessary to create one. Please follow the steps listed below to create an account. At the end of this task, your site will obtain an EDI ID with a password. These two fields are needed to configure the service.

  • Open Internet Explorer and navigate to
  • Once there, click the “Register for an account” link.

On the registration page, fill out the form as directed. When filling out this form, please keep a few things in mind:

  • For “Account Type”, make sure that Provider is selected.
  • For EDI ID, we recommend that all sites use the Federal Tax ID that they registered to create their account, but any value can be used.

United Service Setup

The port that the United service listens on is defaulted to 9060, which was chosen since it is unlikely any other NEHEN service listens on that port. It is necessary to verify no other service is listening on that port on the server. If one is, 9060 cannot be used for this service.

Please use the instructions next to the following bullet points to locate the InboundPort registry entry for each service using the NEHEN Configurator. Note each inbound port in use to determine whether 9060 can be used for this service.

  • To access a secondary service’s registry values using the Configurator, with the Configurator open, go to NEHEN -> Services -> [name of service], with [name of service] being the name of the service you are checking.
  • To access an instance of the eGateway service’s registry values using the Configurator, with the Configurator open, go to NEHEN -> Services -> [name of service] -> Edit Registry, with [name of service] being the name of the service you are checking.

If port 9060 cannot be used for United, select a different port number. It can be any number between 9,000 and 11,000 that is not in use by another service as the inbound port. Change the service’s InboundPort registry entry to the port number chosen. Use the instructions next to the first bullet point above to access the service’s registry.

Adding United as an Available Service in the Configurator
  • Open the NEHEN Configurator if it is not open.
  • Go to NEHEN->Services->Available Services to display the “Available Services” window.
  • Click on the Add button.
  • Enter the following information into the fields:

Service Name: / United
Service Description: / United – NEHEN EDI Service
Service Executable Name: / united.exe
TCP Port: / 9060 (or, if 9060 is in use by another service, the port number chosen)
Type: / Simple
  • Click on the OK button to close the form.

Registry Configuration

After installing the service, a few changes to the registry are needed to configure the service for your site. To modify the registry, open NEHEN Configurator, and navigate to NEHEN  Services United. Commonly modified entries that sites customize are listed below.

Entry Name / Description
Audit / Flag to indicate if the service should be auditing & recording transactions.
CleanerCount / Number of threads the service should use to send transactions.
ConnectionType / Method to connect to United with: “https” or “webservice” are the only two valid options. Most sites will use https.
DailyLogFile / Set to 0 or 1, setting to 1 (recommended) will create new log files daily
DataSourceName / ODBC data source name
DataSourceLogin / ODBC data source login
DataSourcePassword / ODBC data source password
DefaultDepartment / Not Used
EDI Password / United EDI password that was created during registration
EDI Submitter ID / Federal Tax ID
EDI User ID / Federal Tax ID
Environment / Sets the environment: “T” for test or “P” for production. This should be set to “T” unless your site has been approved for production transactions.
InstallPath / Path where United.exe is installed
InboundPort / 9060 or the port number chosen
Logfile / Path to directory and file where United’s logs are kept
Loglevel / Sets detail level of logs kept, 6 being the most comprehensive, and 1 being minimum logging.
PriorityRealTimeProcessing / Prioritizes real-time transactions. Recommended to be set to 1.
Receiver Name / Name of your site
ServiceEmailPassword / Password to SMTP server for email alerts
ServiceEmailUsername / Username to SMTP server for email alerts
SystemAdministratorEmailAddress / Email Address to send alerts to, if none are identified.
UnitedPassword / Password for webservice mode
UnitedUserID / Username for webservice mode
UseAccountTable / 0, but see notes below

The UseAccountTable flag should only be set to ‘1’ if your site has multiple United EDI accounts that they wish to use. If your site does this, you will need to configure the Account_Logins database table to store and process this information. For more information on this, please contact NEHEN Support (; 781-290-1490).

After modifying these registry entries, please restart the United service using the instructions shown below.

•Click Start  Administrative Tools Services

•Locate the United service, right-click on it, and click ‘Stop’.

•Wait 10 seconds.

•Right click on the United, and click ‘Start’.

eGateway Configuration

Partners File

Sites must ensure the correct trading partners are configured for processing via the United service.

Using NEHEN Configurator

  1. Using the Configurator, go to NEHEN > Services > eGateway > Partners.
  2. See if United exists as the Partner ID of one of the trading partners. It is displayed as the value in parentheses in the list of Partners.
  3. If it is not there, add it by clicking the New button, modifying the following values, and clicking the OK button:

Partner Name: / United
Partner ID: / NEHEN027
Partner Type: / Internal
IP Address: / 127.0.0.1
Port: / 9060 or the port number chosen
Queue Clear Speed: / 0 (zero)
  1. Click No if asked to restart the service.
  2. When done with the Partners file, click OK to close the window.

Using the Partners.txt File

Use these instructions if your site has not converted to the XML files.

  1. Open the Partners.txt file in the “\Program Files\NEHEN\eGateway\Control” folder.
  2. See if United exists as the Partner ID of one of the trading partners. It is the second parameter on a trading partner line.
  3. If it is not there, add the following line with no spaces after the first comma and with x being the value in the InboundPort registry entry for the United service (covered above):
    United,NEHEN027,127.0.0.1,x
  4. Save and close the file.

Mapping File

For processing of transactions sent via United, it is necessary to configure new mapping transformations for 270 transactions and for 271 transactions for each application your site uses to submit United eligibility transactions. (Reminder: At the time of the NEHEN 11.8 Release, eligibility transactions should continue to be sent via MedAvant. Therefore the eligibility Mapping configuration should be skipped.) The same applies to 276 and 277 transactions. Also, it is necessary to modify any existing Mapping entries to invoke new map programs and send the transactions to the United service. Because of the changes to the file, we recommend creating a backup copy of the Mapping.xml or Mapping.txt file in the “\Program Files\NEHEN\eGateway\Control” folder prior to making any changes.
Please compile a list of application sender IDs (or node values) your site uses, using the following information:

  • If your site’s eGateway service uses ISA addressing, the only sender ID should be your site’s NEHEN ID.
  • If your site’s eGateway service uses GS addressing, application sender IDs (or node values) are the values found in the GS02 element of 270s or 276s and the GS03 element of 271s or 277s. Examples are 00000001R, 00000003B, and 00000003R. Identify all application nodes used by your site. A good way to do this is to use the eGateway Mapping file by doing either of the following:
  • If using XML files, using the Configurator, go to NEHEN -> Services -> eGateway -> Mapping and look at the Sender value of the 270 entries. It is necessary to click on each transformation to see the actual application sender ID in the Sender drop-down box in the Transformation Information section. The ID is in parentheses.
  • If using text files, open the “Mapping.txt” file found in the “\Program Files\NEHEN\eGateway\Control” folder, locate all lines beginning with “270”, and note the third parameter of those lines (with “270” being the first).

Before adding a transformation, ensure one with the same first five parameters does not already exist. Using the Configurator, the Mapping file is found by going to NEHEN -> Services -> eGateway -> Mapping and, after clicking on a transformation, the first five parameters are listed in the Transformation Information section with the trading partner IDs in parentheses. For sites not using the XML files, in the Mapping.txt file in the “\Program Files\NEHEN\eGateway\Control” folder, the first five parameters are listed at the start of each transformation. Compare them to the first five below in the given order. If the mapping transformations already exist, please ensure they are configured with the information listed below. Also, if they do not already exist, but ones with the same Transaction Type, Sender, and Receiver do, modify those transformations to be like the transformations below.

Note that, if two values are listed in the following tables representing Mapping transformations, it is because the setup choices in the text file and the Configurator differ. Also, if your site’s eGateway uses ISA addressing, substitute your site’s NEHEN ID for each occurrence of “00000003R” and ignore the batch entries.

United 270 Mapping for NEHEN Express Real-time Transactions

Transaction Type: / 270
Implementation Guide: / ? or “Any Implementation Guide”
Sender: / NEHEN Express (00000003R)
Receiver: / United (NEHEN027)
File Type: / ? or Either
Action List
Transport
Method: / Direct
Send To: / United
Protocol: / NEHEN
Connect at Startup: / No
Keep Connection Alive: / No

United 270 Mapping for NEHEN Express Batch Transactions

Transaction Type: / 270
Implementation Guide: / ? or “Any Implementation Guide”
Sender: / NEHEN Express (00000003B)
Receiver: / United (NEHEN027)
File Type: / ? or Either
Action List
Transport
Method: / Direct
Send To: / United
Protocol: / NEHEN
Connect at Startup: / No
Keep Connection Alive: / No

United 271 Mapping for NEHEN Express Real-time Transactions

Transaction Type: / 271
Implementation Guide: / ? or “Any Implementation Guide”
Sender: / United (NEHEN027)
Receiver: / NEHEN Express (00000003R)
File Type: / ? or Either
Action List
Transport
Method: / Command
Executable Name: / NEHEN\NEHENLite\Bin\StoreReceive271.exe
Arguments:

United 271 Mapping for NEHEN Express Batch Transactions

Transaction Type: / 271
Implementation Guide: / ? or “Any Implementation Guide”
Sender: / United (NEHEN027)
Receiver: / NEHEN Express (00000003B)
File Type: / ? or Either
Action List
Transport
Method: / Command
Executable Name: / NEHEN\NEHENLite\Bin\StoreReceive271.exe
Arguments:

United 276 Mapping for NEHEN ExpressReal-time Transactions

Transaction Type: / 276
Implementation Guide: / ? or “Any Implementation Guide”
Sender: / NEHEN Express (00000003R)
Receiver: / United (NEHEN027)
File Type: / ? or Either
Action List
Transport
Method: / Direct
Send To: / United
Protocol: / NEHEN
Connect at Startup: / No
Keep Connection Alive: / No

United 276 Mapping for NEHEN Express Batch Transactions

Transaction Type: / 276
Implementation Guide: / ? or “Any Implementation Guide”
Sender: / NEHEN Express (00000003B)
Receiver: / United (NEHEN027)
File Type: / ? or Either
Action List
Transport
Method: / Direct
Send To: / United
Protocol: / NEHEN
Connect at Startup: / No
Keep Connection Alive: / No

United 277 Mapping for NEHEN Express Real-time Transactions

Transaction Type: / 277
Implementation Guide: / ? or “Any Implementation Guide”
Sender: / United (NEHEN027)
Receiver: / NEHEN Express (00000003R)
File Type: / ? or Either
Action List
Transport
Method: / Command
Executable Name: / NEHEN\NEHENLite\Bin\StoreReceive277.exe
Arguments:

United 277 Mapping for NEHEN Express Batch Transactions

Transaction Type: / 277
Implementation Guide: / ? or “Any Implementation Guide”
Sender: / United (NEHEN027)
Receiver: / NEHEN Express (00000003B)
File Type: / ? or Either
Action List
Transport
Method: / Command
Executable Name: / NEHEN\NEHENLite\Bin\StoreReceive277.exe
Arguments:

To set up transactions for integrated nodes, use the mapping entries above and replace the receiver value with the node value. Also, the following information applies for the Action List to be used for response transactions (271 and 277):
If the submitting application is not NEHEN Express, a Map action may be needed and a Transport Direct is likely needed, with the “Send to” being the trading partner of the application receiving the transaction. Please feel free to use other similar mapping transformations for the same transaction type as models.
If you need more information on how to configure integrated nodes to send through the United service, please contact NEHEN Support ().

Starting the Service

The eGateway will need to be restarted after making the changes to the partners and mapping control files.

  1. Open Services by doing either of the following:
  • Go to Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Services.
  • Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services.
  1. Stop and start the service on the server by doing the following:
  • Right-click on the service and select Stop. Once the service has completely stopped, symbolized by the service’s .exe file being removed from the Processes tab of Task Manager, right-click it and select Start.

Sending Test Transactions

United’s EDI policy requires that at least one test transaction be sent from your system before they will allow your site to switch to production. If in the previous steps, you setup eGateway to send NEHEN Expresstransactions to United, you can send these transactions from NEHEN Express.

Unfortunately, because transactions are being sent in test mode, NEHEN Express will not display the response coming back from United. To view these transactions, proceed to the next step.

Verifying Test Transactions

To verify the test eligibility and claim status inquiry transactions sent, open Internet Explorer and navigate to Using the account information set up in the previous steps, log into the United EDI website, and click on the ‘Downloads’ tab at the top of the screen.

In the Downloads pane, you can view all files that your site has submitted to United’s EDI site. In the list of available files, find the most recent submitter report HTML document and click on the link.