Electronic Visit Verification: What Does It Mean for Texas Providers?

Discover more about EVV requirements and how the right solution can improve overall care.

The home care field is always evolving, creating new policies and regulations that ultimately enhance patient care. The most recent change that has home care agency owners buzzing is the introduction of Electronic Visit Verification or EVV. If you haven’t quite figured out how to effectively implement EVV regulations into your agency’s daily routine, we have compiled a few ways you can make it easier on yourself and your caregivers.

What is EVV?

Electronic Visit Verification, or EVV, is verifying the services provided for a patient in a designated location. The specific information that caregivers document during their shift is transmitted to your agency and then to state and federal agencies to ensure repayment. Medicaid services specifically use EVV to give reimbursement for personal care services.

EVV is a part of the 21st Century CURES Act, which is a federal law. Texas has mandated that EVV be required for all personal care services via home care agencies as of January 1 of this year.

What is Included in EVV Documentation?

According to the CURES Act, electronic visit verification requires caregivers to document specific items during their shift. By doing so, ultimately EVV will improve patient care while decreasing fraud, abuse, or waste.

Team members must document:

1. The type of personal care service provided
2. The person receiving the service
3. The person giving the service
4. The date the service is given
5. Location of service delivery
6. The beginning and ending times of the service

While many home care agency owners believe that simply clocking in and out using telephony or an app will meet the EVV requirements, there’s a bit more to it than that. Caregivers must document their in and out time as well as the other details in order to meet EVV requirements using either traditional telephony, an app, or a fixed object system.

Vendors and Other Options Available

EVV means a change in technology for most agencies. Fortunately, providers have a few options to decide between in order to make EVV a reality. The first is to use one of the providers that have been selected by the Texas Medicaid and Healthcare Partnership (TMHP). DataLogic Software and First Data Government Solutions are the two TMHP choices, but providers do not have to limit themselves.

Instead, providers can choose their own system and software that are EVV compliant. Choosing their own system and software can allow providers to find the perfect solution to EVV while maximizing quality of care and caregiver compliance.

Caregiver-centric apps are proving to be the most logical and effective system for EVV documentation. Not only do caregivers already have their smartphones with them during work, but the apps are also easy for leaders to customize to the agency’s specific needs which can make accurate documentation a snap. Further, providers find that specialized platforms allow their agency to meet and exceed EVV expectations while giving clinicians a better overall view of the patient care that is happening in the field. 

Your agency can benefit from an app and online platform that is made to make caregiver documentation compliance easy, improve quality of care, and meet EVV requirements. You just have to find the perfect one.