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Public Health Registration for Electronic Data Submission System: FAQs

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health (DPH) Public Health Registration for Electronic Data Submission System (PHREDS) is the only way to register to electronically report data to the following DPH programs:

  • Cancer Data
  • Immunizations
  • Reportable Lab Results
  • Syndromic Surveillance

On this page you will find information related to:

 

Registration FAQs

PHREDS is a DPH SharePoint site. To access PHREDS, you need to request a PHREDS account. PHREDS includes:

  • The registration forms needed to register for any/all of the above programs.
  • Information on how DPH is distributing Meaningful Use acknowledgements.
    Note: Acknowledgements for testing and ongoing submission statuses will only be posted in PHREDS.
  • Contact information for each of the above DPH programs.

Follow the instructions on the PHREDS Enrollment and Registration of Intent page. You cannot access PHREDS without a PHREDS account. Please note that it may take up to three business days for a PHREDS enrollment request to be approved. For this reason, do not wait until the 60th day of your reporting period to enroll in PHREDS.

No. After you have enrolled in PHREDS (granting you access to the site), you must then submit a PHREDS registration form for your organization to register intent to submit data to any of the DPH programs that have declared readiness to accept electronic data.

If you have not already done so, please follow the instructions on the PHREDS Enrollment and Registration of Intent page to learn how to enroll in PHREDS before completing a registration form on the PHREDS SharePoint site. To submit a PHREDS registration form, follow the instructions in the “Registration” page within PHREDS.

The only way to register to electronically report data to DPH programs is through the PHREDS SharePoint site. Providers should follow the instructions on the PHREDS Enrollment and Registration of Intent page to learn how to enroll in PHREDS before completing a registration form on the PHREDS SharePoint site. To submit a PHREDS registration form, follow the instructions on the PHREDS site.

No. The PHREDS registration forms cover all of the information needed to register for the Cancer, Immunization, Electronic Case Reporting, Reportable Lab Results, and Syndromic Surveillance programs.

Yes. An organization may register one PHREDS registration form on behalf of all the facilities that are under its legal ownership.

Yes. There are two PHREDS registration form types to accommodate different registration scenarios: the Individual Provider form and the Multiple Provider form. These two form types are distinguished by the number of sites a legal entity wishes to register. Use the Individual Provider Registration if registering for a single site. Use the Multiple Provider Registration if registering for multiple sites. The PHREDS Registration page on the PHREDS SharePoint site further explains which form should be used for different registration scenarios.

No. Any providers who would like to submit data to the Cancer, Electronic Case Reporting, Immunization, Reportable Lab Results, and/or Syndromic Surveillance programs must now register through PHREDS, regardless of their Meaningful Use participation.

No. Once a legal entity is registered, all providers at the practice/clinic(s) listed in PHREDS are considered to be registered.
For Meaningful Use, if multiple eligible professionals are using the same certified EHR technology (CEHRT) in a shared physical setting (location), regardless of their stage of Meaningful Use, they are only required to register their location once. An organization is not required to create registration forms for each eligible professional at their location.

Providers are permitted to register with PHREDS in advance of the start of their EHR reporting period. At a minimum, they must register with PHREDS no later than 60 days after the start of their EHR reporting period.

Only register for the physical location where you do the majority of your work, using the PHREDS Individual Provider form. You may list the other sites where you practice in the “Comments” field of the PHREDS Individual Provider form, but this is not required.

No. Providers only need to register with a public health program once, which indicates intent to initiate submission of data to meet a public health measure. If providers have not progressed into testing and validation or ongoing submission (i.e., production) status in subsequent years of participation, the documentation of the initial registration of intent may be used for attestation.

No. The information provided in a PHREDS registration form is only visible to the person who created the form and DPH staff. Access to the PHREDS registration form can be given to other people within your organization; see the PHREDS site for more information.

No. DPH requires each legal entity to register itself for public health programs that have declared readiness to accept electronic data. This means that a vendor cannot register on behalf of its clients. This is done to ensure DPH has a contact within each registered legal entity. This also ensures the legal entity has access to its registration information for Meaningful Use attestation and auditing purposes. A vendor may be listed as a technical contact in the PHREDS registration form at the discretion of the legal entity.

If you are having difficulty logging into PHREDS, try these troubleshooting tips:

  1. In the login window, choose on the second option “Use another account.” Enter your full PHREDS account name (WIEXT\YOURUSERNAME, e.g., WIEXT\smithj) and password.
  2. Log in using a different browser.
  3. Add SharePoint to your Trusted Sites. In Internet Explorer, choose the “Tools” menu and then the “Internet Options” menu item. Choose the “Security” tab. Choose the “Trusted Sites” icon. Then choose the “Sites” button. In the website, type in (or copy and paste): https://share.health.wisconsin.gov. Choose the “Add” button. Choose “Yes” if you receive a popup with this message: “The site you specified already exists in the local intranet zone. Would you like to move it to the Trusted Sites zone?”
  4. Repeated attempts to log in with an incorrect password will lock your account. To reset your password, follow the instructions on the DOA/Wisconsin Logon ID/Password Recovery Process page.
  5. If you still cannot log in to the PHREDS site, email ehealth@wisconsin.gov with the subject line “PHREDS Access.”

Go to the PHREDS site:

Email eHealth@wisconsin.gov with the subject line “Registration Form Retrieval.” Please include your name, WILMS ID, and your affiliated organization in the body of the email.

Email eHealth@wisconsin.gov with the subject line “Registration Confirmation Email.” Please include your name, WILMS ID, and your affiliated organization in the body of the email.

Follow the instructions listed at this PHREDS page.

Onboarding FAQs

Onboarding refers to the testing and validation process that providers and public health programs engage in prior to achieving ongoing submission of production data.

If you did not receive a registration confirmation email, send an email to eHealth@wisconsin.gov with the subject line “Registration Confirmation Email.” Please include your name, WILMS ID, and your affiliated organization in the body of the e-mail.

After you submit your registration form, the public health program(s) for which you registered (and/or WISHIN) are notified of your registration and you are placed in the registration queue for the program(s). The program(s) will contact the first business contact (and second business contact, if provided) as well as the appropriate technical contact(s) when they are ready to initiate onboarding. For more information about each program’s prioritization of provider onboarding, select one of the DPH program links from the top left menu.

If you continue to have questions, email the DPH program with which you registered intent at the following addresses:

A provider will not meet the requirement for active engagement if he/she fails to do either of the following:

  • Register with DPH no later than 60 days after the start of his/her EHR reporting period.
  • Respond within 30 calendar days to requests by DPH, or an agent acting on behalf of DPH (e.g., WISHIN, Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene), for action on two separate occasions.

Yes. A provider who remains in the registration queue during his/her EHR reporting period and does not begin the onboarding process does not need to take an exclusion for the public health measure(s).

No. If multiple EPs are using the same certified EHR technology (CEHRT) in a shared physical setting, testing will be conducted for the physical setting and not for each EP at the location for each public health program for which the site is registered.

Acknowledgements FAQs

Acknowledgements are the only forms of official communication from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health (DPH) to providers affirming the status of registration, testing, and/or ongoing submission of public health data for Meaningful Use. In the event of an audit, providers will use acknowledgments to substantiate their Meaningful Use attestation. We strongly encourage providers to retain copies of these documents, as they are the only forms of documentation produced by DPH for this purpose.
Even if your organization/site is still in the onboarding queue or has achieved ongoing submission of production data in a previous EHR reporting period, you need to save a copy of the acknowledgements file dated after the end of each EHR reporting period. If you are audited, the CMS auditor will want to see an Acknowledgments file with a date occurring after the end of the EHR reporting period being audited for confirmation of the organization/site’s status at that time. For this reason, we also encourage you to save a printed or PDF copy of the PHREDS Acknowledgements and Acknowledgements Files pages that explain acknowledgement statuses and contents of acknowledgements files. Read the FAQs below for more detailed information on acknowledgements.

An email is sent after a provider initially registers for a public health program (Cancer, Electronic Case Reporting, Immunizations, Reportable Lab Results, and Syndromic Surveillance) confirming the provider is waiting in the registration queue to onboard. This email acknowledging the “completed registration to submit data” status is sent to the registrant and the identified business contact when a PHREDS registration form is submitted. Individual acknowledgements for any status besides “completed registration to submit data” will not be sent. We strongly suggest all providers save a copy of the registration confirmation email for Meaningful Use attestation and audit purposes.

The “completed registration to submit data” status and all subsequent statuses (i.e., testing and production) are acknowledged via the files posted to the PHREDS Acknowledgements page. These files list the sites (hospital and clinic) that are registered for the public health programs. We strongly encourage providers to retain copies of these documents at the end of their EHR reporting period, as they are the only forms of documentation produced by DPH for this purpose.

Acknowledgements files are posted on the PHREDS Acknowledgements page quarterly: on the 15th of the month (or the following business day) in January, April, July, and October. Unlike your registration file, all PHREDS users can see the testing and ongoing submission of production data statuses of all organizations registered with PHREDS.

General FAQs and Contacts

For Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) responses to FAQs about Meaningful Use, visit the CDC Meaningful Use Frequently Asked Questions page.

For Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) responses to FAQs about Meaningful Use, visit the CMS Frequently Asked Questions page.

Additional CMS Meaningful Use Resources:

If you have any other questions about PHREDS, please email eHealth@wisconsin.gov.
If you have any questions about the specific public health programs, please email your questions directly to the program:

Glossary

 
Last revised June 8, 2023