ShiftCare allows Ohio DODD (Department of Developmental Disabilities) providers to streamline their Medicaid billing process by automatically compiling billable shifts into a perfectly formatted, fixed-width flat file (.txt) ready for upload.
This guide covers how to configure your account for eMBS billing, validate your claims, and generate your export file.
Important: ShiftCare does not send this file directly to the DODD portal. You must download the file from ShiftCare and manually upload it to the eMBS portal.
Prerequisites and Setup
Because the eMBS flat-file format is incredibly strict, your file will be rejected by the DODD if any required data is missing. Before generating your first claim file, ensure the following fields are populated in your ShiftCare account:
Account Settings
eMBS Contract Number: Navigate to Account > Settings. Enter your 7-digit Ohio DODD contract number. This number will also be used as the prefix for your generated file name.
Client Profiles
Medicaid ID: Ensure the client’s 12-digit State Medicaid recipient ID is entered in their profile.
Client County: Navigate to the client's profile and select their specific Ohio DODD 2-digit county code.
Services & Price Books
Service-Code Mapping: ShiftCare uses standard HCPCS codes, but eMBS requires Ohio DODD 3-letter codes (e.g., APC, ATB, AQL). You must map your billable services to the correct 3-letter DODD code within your Service/Pricebook settings.
Only time-based services are eligible for eMBS export. Fixed-price services will not appear in the claims list, even if they are mapped to a DODD code.
Staff Profiles (If Applicable)
Longevity Add-on: For AQL services utilizing workers with special training, you can add a dollar amount "Longevity Add-on" to the staff member's profile.
Generating the eMBS Claim File
Once your account is set up and your shifts for the month are invoiced, you can generate your claim file.
Before claims appear on this page, you must first generate the invoices for that month. Only services on unpaid (or overdue) invoices billed to a Medicaid funding source will be listed.
Navigate to eBilling and Invoicing > eMBS Claims from the sidebar menu.
Choose the billing period you wish to export. eMBS files are generated on a per-month basis. If you select a date range that spans multiple months, ShiftCare will automatically split the export into separate files for each month.
The page will display a list of all billable claims for the selected period. See below for validation instructions.
Note on Units: eMBS claims are calculated in 15-minute increments (1 hour = 4 units). For example, a 2-hour shift will display as 8 units on this table.
Once you are satisfied with your valid claims list, click 'Generate eMBS File'. The export will process in the background. Its status will change from Pending to Processing and finally to Completed.
Once completed, click to download the .txt file to your computer.
Log in to your Ohio DODD eMBS portal. Navigate to Billing Submissions > Submit Flat File > Upload Flat File and upload the document.
Pre-Export Validation and Errors
To prevent your file from being rejected by the eMBS portal, ShiftCare automatically scans your claims before you generate the file.
If any claims are missing required data (e.g., missing a county code, missing a Medicaid ID, or an unmapped service code), they will be flagged on the screen with an error reason.
Invalid Claims are automatically excluded from the export. You must fix the missing data in the respective Client/Staff profile and refresh the page to include them.
You can proceed to generate the file with your remaining Valid Claims while you fix the errors on the invalid ones.
Important Tips
The file you downloaded is a "fixed-width" flat file. This means every single character and space is precisely calculated to equal exactly 75 bytes per line.
Do not open and edit this file in Notepad or Word. Doing so may accidentally add blank lines, change the byte-width padding, or alter the file name, which will cause the DODD portal to instantly reject your entire upload.
If you need to make a correction, make the change inside ShiftCare and generate a fresh file.
For further assistance with Generating eMBS Claim Files for Ohio DODD, please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare or email our Support team at support.northamerica@shiftcare.com.