Affect of 21 Cures Act’s Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) on Home Care 

A law has been signed by the federal legislation under the 21st Century CURES Act in December 2016. The law includes a small provision which has a big consequence for the home care providers. The provision needs the states of the Medicaid-funded personal care services programs like WPCS and IHSS so that they could adopt Electronic Visit Verification system in the programs which are going to start from January 1, 2019, or they will be facing a reduction in the federal funding.

EVV System Monitors Care Electronically and Includes:

1. Date of the service provided

2. Location of the delivery of the service

3. Type of the service to be performed

4. Starting and the ending times of the service

5. Individuals those are receiving the service

6. Individuals those are providing the service

The home care providers and the clients, understandably, are wary of the home healthcare software because they simply make their work more difficult than it already is. There is a big choice that the home care services must face and that is, either adopt this senior care software in WPCS and IHSS or simply lose the federal funding for all the critical programs. There are departments who are working on how this EVV must be implemented in the state, and the stakeholders and unions have submitted the formal opposition to the EVV implementation in California.

There are many things about Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) which are going to affect IHSS providers and these are not addressed yet by the state, but here are some points that you must know

Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) plan is under construction: The federal government is giving leverage as how to implement this EVV which means that there is still time to keep the point of view and UDW intends to do that.

There can be some legal challenges to EVV: There are some existing laws which might be violated by the EVV, and it can be the reason for the blockage of its implementation in California.

EVV will be expensive: The ongoing costs of the implementing of the Electronic Visit Verification system and the maintaining of the EVV system is being carefully weighed versus the potential loss of the federal funding. It can happen that the costs will not outweigh the benefits based on the sheer size if the WPCS and IHSS programs.

 There are many UDW caregivers who are opposing the Electronic Visit Verification and for good reasons: the jobs of home care are hard enough and this will simply add another reporting level and oversight layer. That is the reason UDW will be involved in every step of the planning and the implementation of the way of EVV program so that the caregivers and the clients are provided with the laws and their rights are protected.