Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Newsletter - a newsletter with timely content on important updates, best practices, and resources to support your EVV experience.

EVV Newsletter Highlights

• Hospice Services Removed from EVV

• Remote Supports Removed from EVV 

• Live-in Caregiver Panel - Coming Soon!

• Unmodified EVV and Modified EVV Explained

What is EVV?

EVV is a technology used to verify that home and community-based service visits occur. The purpose of EVV is to ensure that services are delivered to people needing those services and that providers bill only for services rendered.

Did you Know?

One third of providers of EVV services in Colorado spend on average 10 minutes or less per week modifying EVV.

What's New with EVV?

Hospice Services Removed from EVV

Hospice services are reimbursed using a unique per-diem payment structure. This differs from other EVV-mandated services which use a fee-for-service payment structure and are subject to a prepayment EVV claim edit.

Therefore, effective July 1, 2024, HCPF removed the requirement for Hospice providers to submit EVV records for services delivered in the home and community. 

Hospice providers were instructed to cease EVV collection for Medicaid billing purposes starting July 1, 2024.

For more information, view Policy Memo PM 24-002 Hospice Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Exemption.

Remote Supports Removed from EVV

Remote Supports has moved to a standalone service on Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Elderly, Blind, and Disabled (EBD), Supported Living Services (SLS), Brain Injury (BI), Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH), and Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) Waivers as of Aug. 1, 2024, and no longer requires EVV.

Updated Case Management Agency and Remote Supports Provider Agency Training slides along with recordings of past Meet and Greets with our Providers are available on the LTSS Training webpage.

Additional details are available within Operational Memo 24-037 Remote Support Services.

For more information or questions regarding Remote Supports, please visit the Remote Supports webpage or contact Kacey.Wardle@state.co.us.

Changes to the Provider Portal for Live-in Caregiver Panel - Coming Soon!

The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) will be making updates to the live-in caregiver (LIC) exemption process using the Provider Web Portal. Some highlights of this change include:

• Application requests and Revalidation Applications will be used for LIC exemption submissions and approvals.

• Providers will receive notifications 60 and 30 days before expiration, on the day of expiration, and 30 days after. 

• Strengthens overall exemption process

• Simplifies exemption selection process

• Uses existing Application requests and Revalidation Application processes

• Notifications and reminders

• Provider billing improvements

• Improved and timelier feedback

• Improves HCPF oversight while maintaining LIC flexibilities

See the July 2024 EVV General Stakeholder Meeting Presentation or recording for more information.

Program Goals and Data

Unmodified EVV and Modified EVV Explained

Unmodified EVV: When all six verification data points are captured at the time of service, in real-time, and is best practice. This is also referred to as visits without manual edits.

Modified EVV: When one or more of the verification data points, including manual entries, are captured or modified after the time of service. It is also referred to as visits with manual edits and includes web-based portal entries.

The current EVV Program monthly average for unmodified EVV has regularly hovered around 74% for the last year. A 2023 EVV Survey revealed that almost 2/3 of providers of EVV services spend on average 30 minutes or less per week modifying EVV. That is approximately 6 minutes per day modifying EVV visits.

To further reduce time spent modifying or manually entering EVV and to continue supporting and improving program health and integrity the EVV Program has set out a goal to have 85% or more of visits be unmodified by December 2024​.

Reminders

Collecting EVV in Real-time versus Modified Visits

HCPF recognizes the practical need for visits to be manually entered or modified, however doing so should rarely be used and not as the main method for recording EVV. Some of the benefits of collecting EVV at the time of service and having high rates of unmodified EVV include:

• Verifies service delivery

• Reduces the risk of billing errors later on

• Less administrative management​ of EVV 

• Can help improve overall service coordination among caregivers, clients, and supervisors

• Improved program health and integrity 

Some of the problems or disadvantages of modified EVV include:

• Increased workload

• Increased risk of fraud, waste, or abuse

• Reduced accountability of caregivers

• Manual entries are prone to human error, leading to inaccuracies in the recorded data

• Negatively impact program health and integrity

Sustaining a high rate of unmodified EVV and preventing manual or modified EVV requires thoughtful systems and strategies to ensure that caregivers or CDASS attendants accurately clock in and out in real-time.

Need to Make an Accommodation Request for any of our EVV-related Meetings?

Reasonable accommodations for the meetings will be provided upon request for persons with disabilities. Auxiliary aids and services for individuals with disabilities and language services for individuals whose first language is not English may be provided upon request.

Please contact John Barry at john.r.barry@state.co.us or HCPFs 504/ADA Coordinator at hcpf504ada@state.co.us at least one week prior to the scheduled meeting to make arrangements.