Data Warehouse Feed
Interface Scoping Questionnaire
athenahealth, Inc.
Version 15.10 Published: October 2015
Data Warehouse Feed
1 Table of Contents
1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................................... 2
2 COMPLETING THIS DOCUMENT.......................................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 ICONS GLOSSARY..................................................................................................................................................................... 3
2.2 SCOPE APPROVAL.................................................................................................................................................................... 3
3 PROJECT INFORMATION .................................................................................................................................................... 4
4 PRODUCT DESCRIPTION...................................................................................................................................................... 5
5 GENERAL INTERFACE CONFIGURATION............................................................................................................................ 6
5.1 SAMPLE FILE TESTING ................................................................................................................................................................. 6
5.2 MESSAGE FORMATS .................................................................................................................................................................. 6
5.3 INTERFACE WORKFLOW............................................................................................................................................................. 6
5.4 BACKFILLS ................................................................................................................................................................................ 6
5.5 ADDITIONAL COMMENTS .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
6 OUTBOUND MESSAGE CONFIGURATION .......................................................................................................................... 8
6.1 DELIVERY CYCLE ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8
7 INBOUND MESSAGE CONFIGURATION ............................................................................................................................. 9
8 CONNECTIVITY METHOD OPTIONS .................................................................................................................................. 10
8.1 LOCALLY-HOSTED SFTP .......................................................................................................................................................... 10
9 SAMPLE PROJECT PLAN .................................................................................................................................................... 11
9.1 DATA WAREHOUSE FEED INTERFACE SAMPLE PROJECT PLAN .................................................................................................... 11
10 APPENDICES AND OTHER REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 12
10.1 PLANNED MAINTENANCE WINDOW....................................................................................................................................... 12
10.2 INTERFACE MESSAGE QUEUE MANAGER ................................................................................................................................ 12
10.3 MESSAGE QUEUE MAINTENANCE .......................................................................................................................................... 12
10.4 CONTINUING SERVICE AND SUPPORT ..................................................................................................................................... 12
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2 Completing This Document
All shaded fields are required data elements and must be completed. If any fields are not valued, settings will be
implemented at the discretion of athenahealth; future changes may incur additional implementation fees.
2.1 Icons Glossary
Throughout the ISQ you'll find various icons to highlight athenahealth recommended settings and best practices.
The olive branch icon indicates athenahealth recommended settings.
The money icon indicates options that may incur additional costs.
BEST PRACTICES: The horizontal bar is generally used to highlight additional tips, considerations, and advice.
2.2 Scope Approval
The instructions for scope review are outlined below. Your interface project manager is available to meet, assist with
questions, and help determine the best-fit options for your project.
1.
Review:
Please read the entire Interface Scoping Questionnaire (ISQ) and complete all form fields and check-boxes to the best of
your ability. Should you have questions about the configuration options presented in this document please do not hesitate
to discuss with your interface project manager.
2.
Approve:
When this document is completed to your satisfaction, please approve the scope of the interface by typing your name
below.
I,
, agree to the interface design as described here in this document.
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3 Project Information
Please fill the following to the best of your ability. While not all contacts are required, you should be able to submit at least
two contacts at the onset of a new interface project.
General Information
System’s Marketing Name (if applicable)
Company Name:
(ex. athenahealth, Inc.)
Vendor
(If applicable, third party
data exchange vendor)
Software Product Name:
(ex. athenaNet)
Version:
(ex. 14.9)
Interface Engine:
(ex. athenaNet MX Engine)
Trading Partner Name
Trading Partner Type (ex. Health Information System, EHR, etc.)
athenahealth Practice Context ID
athenahealth Interface Project Manager (PM)
Interface PM Contact Information
Event Number (provided by Interface PM, for internal
athenahealth tracking)
Contact
Role
Project Business Contact
Responsible for overall
success of the project
Project Interface Contact
Project IT Contact
Details
Name:
Phone:
Email:
Interface expert,
responsible for continuing
interface support
Name:
Networking and security
expert, responsible for
overall connectivity
Name:
Phone:
Email:
Phone:
Email:
Name:
Vendor Contact #1
Role:
Phone:
Email:
Name:
Vendor Contact #2
Role:
Phone:
Email:
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Data Warehouse Feed
4 Product Description
The Data Warehouse Feed is a daily file delivery that contains a subset of the client’s data. The feed has a predefined
structure that extracts from athenaNet and delivers to an external server. The data can be then loaded into a data
warehouse/ business intelligence reporting tool of choice.
This interface requires that the client host a site for the data delivery. A third party vendor may then pick up the file from the
client network for delivery to an offsite Data Warehouse. athenahealth is not able to deliver the feed directly to a third
party. Please note, the scope of athenahealth’s interface agreement extends through delivery; integrating the data into
another tool is beyond this scope.
While athenahealth guarantees the secure delivery of the file, the client is responsible for ensuring the protection of PHI
once it has landed on their server.
While we do not offer customized versions of the Data Warehouse Feed, requested enhancements to the contents may be
evaluated for inclusion in future versions. Some requests may be denied due to efficiency and standardization
requirements, or athenahealth proprietary information. Please work with your Account Manager to submit a ticket for
enhancement requests.
The monthly maintenance fee does not cover consulting on the contents of the data feed. Please refer to ‘Interface Class
Description Data Warehouse vX.XX’ for full content documentation. For content-related questions, work with your account
manager to submit a ticket to the EDWSupport team.
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Data Warehouse Feed
5 General Interface Configuration
5.1 Sample File Testing
During set-up, a 30 day sample file may be provided upon request. This file is only available from production data and will
not be generated using preview data. The file is delivered using the same format and structure as both the backfill and
daily files.
5.2 Message Formats
For athenahealth samples and specifications, please see the Developer Toolkit.
(http://www.athenahealth.com/developer-portal/developer-toolkit/by-standard)
The data warehouse feed may be delivered in Comma Separated Values (CSV) following IETF standard RFC 4180, and in
ASCII. Most clients use the CSV format.
The ASCII formatting is theoretically simpler to parse as the separators should not appear within any field and do not need
to be escaped. The byte with hex value 0x1F, called Unit Separator in ASCII, is used as the field separator and the byte with
the hex value 0x1E, called Record Separator in ASCII, is used as the record separator.
The Data Warehouse Feed script does not preprocess any data. User entered quotes or other symbols will be transferred
over and must be processed on the client side. There are many cases where line-breaks and quotes are preserved within
fields. The client is expected to handle those cases when integrating the feeds with their tools.
Message Format Choice
CSV
ASCII
Additional Comments:
5.3 Interface Workflow
Please complete the interface message types and triggers table below:
Enable?
Feed Type
Direction
Athenahealth DWF Version
New Daily Delivery of DWF
Outbound
Version of New Feed:
Upgrade of Existing DWF
Outbound
Version of Existing Feed:
Version of New Feed:
5.4 Backfills
During set-up, a one-time full historical backfill will be sent over the secure connection. athenahealth reserves the right to
break down this backfill into segments for efficiency purposes. We default to sending the backfill in yearly increments, but
will adjust if needed. When the backfill is sent in yearly increments, it is still a snapshot of current data from that year, not the
data as it looked in that year.
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Data Warehouse Feed
BACKFILL PLANNING: When expecting a backfill, please allocate sufficient space on your server. We
generally recommend a10-20GB partition for an Enterprise client. Please note this recommendation varies
greatly based on size of practice and length of time on athenaNet.
After the initial backfill, supplemental backfill requests may incur additional costs. We strongly recommend setting up a
system to back-up your initial and daily files.
5.5 Additional Comments
Through completion of this document, if there are general interface comments, not already covered by the questions and
sections below, please enter them here:
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6 Outbound Message Configuration
6.1 Delivery Cycle
A daily incremental feed will begin after the backfill is delivered. Incremental feeds pull activity and changes made in the
previous day. Daily files are generally kicked off between 1-3 AM EST. Delivery may vary daily with normal fluctuations in
data volume. Occasionally, the delivery time may be significantly delayed due to overnight patches that postpone kick off
time. While we are unable to guarantee a delivery time, we continually optimize the jobs to deliver them as soon as
possible.
All files for a given segment are delivered within a single zipped archive named: ‘datawarehousefeed_file-version-numberrun-date (YYYYMMDDHH23MISS)_contextid.zip’.
For example: datawarehousefeed_3.14_20151201020501_432.zip
Comments:
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Data Warehouse Feed
7 Inbound Message Configuration
There are no inbound messages for this interface type. Please proceed to the next section.
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8 Connectivity Method Options
As part of interface implementation, athenahealth will need to establish a method of transfer for electronic data to and
from a third party system. Data Warehouse Feeds require a Locally-Hosted SFTP connection. See the section below for more
information.
For more details about athenahealth connectivity options, please see the Developer Toolkit.
(http://www.athenahealth.com/developer-portal/developer-toolkit/connectivity)
8.1 Locally-Hosted SFTP
athenahealth will initiate outbound connections to a third-party or client-hosted SSH2 server. The client provides an IP (or
DNS name), username, and password for athenahealth to initiate an outbound SSH connection. Once the SSH tunnel is
established we can exchange files locally using SFTP.
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9 Sample Project Plan
New athenaNet interfaces are worked as separate projects alongside the athenaNet implementation.
9.1 Data Warehouse Feed Interface Sample Project Plan
Phase
Duration
Description
Client completes and returns:

SCOPE
2 weeks

Interface Scoping Questionnaire (ISQ), detailing the interface setup. This document must
be sent in an encrypted message if SFTP password is included on page 7.
Interface Proposal (IP), fee agreement.
Client reviews:

Interface Class Description Data Warehouse vX.XX, detailing content of feed.
BUILD
4 weeks
Client and athena work together to establish SFTP connection between athenahealth and the
practice. Athenahealth may provide a sample file (~1 month of data) if requested.
TEST
4 weeks
Client works with sample file to set up their schema and ETL scripts. May work with data to begin
understanding data relationships.
GO LIVE
2 weeks
With client approval, athenahealth initiates backfill generation and daily file delivery. This usually
takes 5 -14 days depending on the size of the backfill. Occasionally backfill generation may extend
this date. Post Go Live, the interface maintenance is transitioned to a dedicated support team.
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Data Warehouse Feed
10 Appendices and Other References
10.1 Planned Maintenance Window
The athenaNet MX Engine is subject to the same maintenance windows as the general athenaNet application. Currently, 1
A.M. to 3 A.M. Eastern Time is reserved every morning for maintenance. By default, all interfaces are shut-off during this time
window, and also remain disabled until 4 A.M. Eastern Time. For changes to this time window, please contact
athenahealth.
10.2 Interface Message Queue Manager
The athenaNet Interface Message Queue Manager (IMQM) is an interactive repository for all interface messages that pass
through the athenaNet MX Engine. Please note that messages in a final state (processed or deleted) will only remain in the
queue for 90 days.
The IMQM is especially useful in allowing clients to manually resolve common errors, such as missing providers, invalid
procedure codes, or unknown departments. In order to access the IMQM page in athenaNet the following user permissions
must be granted by the local system administrator:
Permission
Use Case
Interface Admin: View Message Queue
You want to be able to view the IMQM.
Interface Admin: Map Insurance Messages
You need to map insurance messages.
Interface Admin: Map Messages (except Insurances)
You need to map all messages excluding insurance messages
(e.g. provider and department mappings).
Interface Admin: File Upload Interface
You want to be able to upload files via the interface.
10.3 Message Queue Maintenance
Messages delivered by athenaNet can be categorized into several processing states.
Message State
Explanation
SCHEDULED
Scheduled to be sent at a later time
NEW
Placeholder for a new message and ready to be sent or received
PENDING
Delivery or acknowledgement is pending
PROCESSED
Processed normally; remains in queue for only 90 days
ERROR
Generic error encountered; routed to client
CBOERROR
Billing related error encountered; routed to client
ATHENAERROR
Internal error encountered; routed to athenahealth Client Support Center
DELETED
Messages that have been deleted; remains in queue for only 90 days
See athenaNet Interface Queue Management Guide for more information on the functionality of the IMQM and on clientside cleanup for ERRORs and CBOERRORs.
(http://www.athenahealth.com/~/media/athenaweb/files/developerportal/interface_message_queue_management_guide.docx?la=en)
10.4 Continuing Service and Support
Two weeks after go-live your interface will be transitioned into our daily service and support structure.
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Data Warehouse Feed
As a standard practice, athenahealth continuously monitors all client connections to the cloud server and will notify the
appropriate contact if an error occurs. All global distributions are monitored for missing subscriptions. All job statuses are
monitored and automatically restarted if idle. Please note that you may still experience a delay in file delivery as the file
generation is restarted. For more details please refer to Interface Down Support Document
(http://www.athenahealth.com/~/media/athenaweb/files/developerportal/interface_down_support_document.pdf?la=en)
Should you need to contact athenahealth for, questions or modifications to the interface, live support can be accessed
directly in athenaNet:
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