What is Electronic Visit Verification (EVV)
The story dates back to December 2016, when the 114th US Congress enacted the 21st Century Cures Act. According to the Section 12006 of the Act, it is mandatory for states to implement Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) for Personal Care Services and Home Health Care Services by January 1, 2019, and January 1, 2023, respectively. This is going to prove revolutionary because it will change the way home care agencies provide services. The act aims to curb fraud and improve care quality with the implementation of EVV systems. As of now, Texas and Illinois mandated the use of Electronic Visit Verification (EVV). Home care providers across the country are investing time and money into Electronic Visit Verification systems, to meet a federal mandate that takes effect on January 1, 2019.
What is Electronic Visit Verification?
In simple words, EVV is a technological solution that automates the information collection of the service by capturing time, attendance, and care plan details that are punched in by a home care worker at the point of care. EVV helps to access information on care delivery in real time to ensure there are no gaps in care throughout the entire course of the service schedule. It helps in verifying – the type of service performed, individual receiving the service, individual providing the service, date the service was provided, the location of service delivery and time the service begins and ends.
What Makes EVV So Much Effective?
While using technological solutions, service delivery information can be collected and accessed in many ways. For home care agencies, the ease of use, efficiency, and flexibility of a solution helps them to perform business operations with utmost accuracy. The tech integrated within the systems and mobile devices allows them to work with or without cellular or wireless connectivity, enables patients to confirm delivery with their signatures, helps to recognize unauthorized services, provides highly controlled access to client data, read-only features prevent times or costs from being manipulated and creates flags for service deliveries that don’t meet specified criteria.
On the functional level, EVV features integrated within the home care software solution capture and track data. However, there are features embedded in the software that are specifically geared toward helping Medicaid payers reduce readmission rates.
By implementing EVV, home care agencies can benefit in different ways:
- Helps caregivers and agencies to communicate in real-time
- Allows quicker point-of-care documentation
- Accessing crucial information whenever needed for better care service delivery at low cost
- Receive no-show alerts for missed visits in real time
- Get text alerts to confirm caregiver visits start and end
- Schedule, budget, and authorization reporting
- Restrict clock-in if budget exceeded
- Capture care delivery documentation
- Alerts regarding training, licenses, and more
How States and Agencies Can Implement EVV?
The 21st Century Cures Act has allowed states to select and implement the EVV model of their choice as long as it is meeting the minimum requirements. Accordingly, some states have opted for ‘Open Model’ and some preferred to go with ‘Closed Model’. Another provision to mandate EVV without putting pressure on care providers is through ‘Provider Choice Model’.
According to Section 12006 of the legislation, the Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) System is required for providing personal care services and home health services that comes under Medicaid. This section directs states to require the use of Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) for Medicaid-provided personal care services and home health services.
To learn more about state-wide implementation model and strategies, administrative structure, eligibility, penalty, and deadlines, click on the states given below:
