This document outlines how to enable Extended Modification Solution (EMS) support in the CMA.
Add Hardship Indicator to Creditors
A new EMS Hardship Indicator with a value of “M” has been added to System Management/System Codes table:
This hardship indicator should be added to participating Creditors using the DMA/Creditors view under the Hardship tab. There, you can specify the individual Creditor terms specific to EMS.
New Client Hardship Reasons for COVID-19
In order to track Clients impacted by COVID-19, new Hardship Reasons have been added to the Hardship Reason Drop downs. These new reasons are mapped to existing RPPS codes 2 (Reduced income/unemployment) and 8 (Unexpected/Catastrophic Expenses)
Enroll a ClientCredit account in EMS
In order to enroll an existing Client’s account in EMS, edit the ClientCredit record in the DMA and
1. change the Proposal Status to Queued.
2. change the Hardship Indicator to M: EMS.
3. remove the DMP BillerID to prevent the account from appearing in the RPPS DMP report
4. update the Months Behind field to indicate current months behind in payment. (this field added 2020.03.30)
5. update the record (The CMA will automatically update the Program APR and new Monthly Payment. )
Tracking Charge Off Proposal Dates
The distributed EMS Calculator should be used to compute Charge Off dates.
A new Task called EMS Charge Off Proposal can be created using System Management/Task Management. This task can be created for Clients and linked to ClientCredit records to schedule when to transmit Charge Off Proposals for each ClientCredit account based on the date obtained from the EMS Calculator.
Identifying Clients enrolled in EMS
There are at least three methods that can be used to track Clients enrolled in EMS.
- If not using the Broker codes in the DMA, create a new Broker code under System Management/System Codes with a label such as EMS. Change the Client’s Broker code under the Client/Admin tab
- If using Broker codes for other purposes, create a new Agency and associate the Client with this EMS Agency
- If the above two options are used for other tracking purposes, you can create a Client Tag under System Management/System Codes. Client Tags are only displayed in the Client and DMA/All Clients views so its reporting capabilities are not as useful as using Brokers and Agencies.
Agreement/Extranet Package
The EMS Disclosure and Plan documents that need to be signed by Clients, can be added as Documents under System Management/Document Template Management.
The Documents can either be added as Extranet Steps using System Management/Extranet Phases and/or a printable package using System Management/Document Package Management (Document Transaction).
It is recommended that an ACH step is added to both the package and Extranet steps to get authorization for the new monthly payment amount.