Blog from September, 2020

Please review message below in regard to research billing.

To: Principal Investigators and Research Professionals

Effective 09/01/2020, the FY21 research rates for hospital charges will receive an 81% discount off of gross charges. For example, if the hospital charge is $100, the research rate will be $19. This discounted is calculated based on the hospital’s Medicare aggregate outpatient collection rate. MUSC-P will continue to provide services at the Medicare reimbursement rate.

Please keep in mind that, depending on the location where the service is provided and the type of service, there may be both hospital (HB) and professional (PB) charges. The full cost of some services, such as procedures, may be difficult to estimate since these services may involve multiple costs, such as supplies, anesthesia, operating and recovery room time. The Office of Clinical Research (OCR) will work with you to calculate a cost estimate for research services. Please request OCR Prospective Reimbursement Analysis (PRA) services through SPARCRequest © at sparc.musc.edu or by contacting the OCR directly at MUSC-OCR@musc.edu.

Thank you for your patience and support as we institute the new rates.


Dear MUSC SPARC Users,

The SPARCRequest Team has just released updates to SPARCRequest and SPARCFulfillment. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions.

 Check out the link below for the detailed list of the new features and bug fixes:

SPARCRequest Version 3.8.0 & SPARCFulfillment Version 3.2.0

For more information, please contact the SPARCRequest Team

Email: sparcrequest@musc.edu

Phone: 843-792-8300

Good Morning MUSC,

In today’s “Tip of the Day” we will be talking about the External Affiliate NetID service on SPARCRequest. The External Affiliate NetID is a 2-step process offered by SCTR to request a NetID and password for non-MUSC research staff (i.e. community partners, off-campus staff, etc.) who, for study purposes, need access to ONLY eIRB, CITI Training, REDCap, and/or SPARCRequest. If additional access to other systems or an MUSC email is required, you must request a traditionally-sponsored NetID for the individual(s) through Human Resources.

sparc.musc.edu/organizations/179

To submit a request for this service via SPARC, you must be an MUSC employee. External Affiliates cannot request their own NetIDs or NetIDs on behalf of other External Affiliates. Once logged into SPARC, if this is a new request, go to “South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute (SCTR)” and click on “External Affiliate NetID” as shown in the image above. Click on the green plus sign icon next to the “External Affiliate NetID Request” to add the request to your cart. Once selected, click “Save and Continue” to advance to the next screen and continue to fill out the necessary information within each of the steps pertaining to your request. When you reach Step 5, you can review your request and click “Submit Request” to complete the process.  After submitting the SPARC request, you will have to submit the affiliate’s information via the REDCap link found here: REDCap.

Once a request is received, External Affiliate NetIDs are typically issued within 3 business days at no cost to the investigator. To request an extension or termination of an existing External Affiliate NetID, you would also utilize the same REDCap link: REDCap.

If an External Affiliate requires a password reset, they may call 843-792-9700 and follow the prompts for NetID management for assistance or the sponsor can submit a request for assistance on their behalf via ServiceNow.

Please contact the SUCCESS Center (success@musc.edu) if you have any questions about the request/application process.