Electronic Visit Verification Delayed

(July 19, 2018)—The U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation to delay until 2020 the requirement of electronic visit verification (EVV) to document when personal care services are provided. An identical bill passed the House of Representatives, sending the legislation to President Trump to sign into law.

The 21^st Century Cures Act mandated EVV to begin in January 2019 to crack down on fraudulent Medicaid billing. The new legislation allows states to obtain an additional extension until 2021 if the 2020 deadline cannot be met. Further, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is required to hold at least one hearing by the end of 2019 to solicit comments on the program from stakeholders.

Industry concerns around EVV include a lack of program development and implementation in many states, and the cost of implementation to providers. It is hoped that the delay will address these concerns, according to the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).

“We are pleased to announce that the National Association for Home Care and Hospice and the Partnership for Medicaid Home-Based Care recently met to discuss the issue of implementation of the federal electronic visit verification mandate,” according to a statement released on behalf of William A. Dombi of NAHC and David Totaro of the Partnership for Medicaid Home-Based Care (PMHC). “Both NAHC and PMHC have the same goal of ensuring effective and efficient implementation of the EVV mandate in all states. In order to best achieve that common goal, the two organizations agreed to continue their dialogue on EVV implementation and meet as needed as the implementation process unfolds. NAHC and PMHC agree that inclusion of the mandate to cover personal care services is a vitally important issue which requires that both organizations share information, ideas and strategy. We look forward to working together on the EVV issue as well as other issues of importance to homecare.”

For EVV basics, click here.