An Overview of the EVV Mandate

As technology continues to evolve and advance many different aspects of our lives, the way we approach healthcare continues to change as well. In 2016, the Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) National Mandate was signed into law. This law addresses how states are to use an EVV for Medicaid-funded personal and home health care services. With that in mind, we’ll take a look at some of the specific items you need to know about this software so that you can continue to provide the best care to your consumers.

At FOCOS Innovations, we provide solutions that connect people and empower independence. We are proud to offer an innovative platform that connects homecare providers, state agencies, and managed care organizations. Our core platform features a number of options, including:

Consumer relationship management (CRM)
Historical tracking
Complete service and utilization management
Electronic visit verification (EVV)
Real-time alerts and reporting
Flexible service scheduling
New electronic care planning – coming soon!

What Is EVV?

Electronic Visit Verification is used to verify visit activity for both in-home care services and care services provided in the community. It is intended to offer a measure of accountability to ensure that those consumers who need care are receiving the level of care and other services they need and those that are authorized. EVV is a tool that is intended to make sure that only verified home care visits are billed. This helps the program to retain integrity and ensure that various quality and safety goals are met.

Providers and EVV

Providers should use EVV to accurately manage the delivery of their services, streamline paper-based transactions, and enable a more streamlined approach to documenting services. While the standard web-based timesheet is a simple option, new applications mean that you now have the option to utilize GPS-location services to validate a caregiver visit.

Closed Model vs. Open Model

States have the freedom in choosing the system they wish to use when it comes to EVV. States who choose to mandate specific EVV vendors use a closed-model system. Other states may choose to use an open model system where they do not select specific vendors, which is called vendor-agnostic.

Closed Model

In a closed model, the state’s Medicaid program contracts with an EVV vendor and mandates that all providers use that vendor’s EVV system. A closed model might create objections with some providers if they’ve already standardized their business around another EVV option.

Open Model

In an open model, and the most popular, states allow providers to choose a system that works best for them. The state establishes their EVV technology first, and then purchases an aggregator system, which is a vendor-agnostic system. This system receives data from all of the EVV systems to ensure that all visits are verified properly, and it also generates alerts when visit data does not meet the established standards.

Benefits of EVV

Ease of Reporting

You can improve efficiency by utilizing exception-based reporting of important metrics. For example, instead of working through an exhaustive list of metrics each time a visit needs approval, you can use metric reporting on a trended basis, rather than require every metric for visit approval. Some common metrics that can be reported after a visit include:

Total number of visits
Visits that started behind schedule
Missed visits
Visits with change in staff
And more

Eliminate Redundancies

When you utilize an EVV system, you can rely on one source of truth for documenting visits, which eliminates the need to have both a paper trail and electronic documentation. Eliminating redundancies not only saves your company time but also money.

At FOCOS Innovations, we want to make sure that you have the information and insights you need to stay current with technological advancements, manage home care visits, and more. We provide web-based, real-time home health care solutions so that you can provide the best possible outcomes for your consumer’s quality of life. Ready to get started? Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and learn how our platform can benefit you.