Navigating EVV Tracking in Home Healthcare

Accountability is important; businesses that work closely with the healthcare field know this intimately. People and their loved ones who hire mobile home healthcare services trust the workers they hire not only with the patient themselves, vulnerable patients in need of assistance, but also with their protected healthcare information. With that level of trust should come a high level of accountability, to hold workers in the field of home healthcare to the highest possible standards and to react accordingly when those standards are not met.

To facilitate this, legislation has recently gone into effect that requires all United States healthcare providers and their workers to utilize EVV, or Electronic Visit Verification. This might seem like a big change, but in this article, we’ll discover the purpose and benefits of EVV tracking, as well as how existing tracking and reimbursement tools can make embracing EVV compliance a breeze. 

What is EVV Tracking and Why Was it Implemented?

First of all, where did the requirement for EVV tracking originate? It’s a pretty recent change! In December 2016, The 21st Century Cures Act was signed into law. Among other provisions related to medical funding and research, it required that by January 2023, all healthcare providers who specialize in Personal Care Services (PCS) and Home Healthcare Services (HHS) utilize EVV. These regulations apply to all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and all U.S. territories. Under the 21st Century Cures Act, individuals providing in-home PCS or HHS services must provide the following information for each visit:

• The type of service provided or performed 
• The individual receiving the service
• The individual providing the service
• The date the service was provided
• The location where the service was delivered
• The start and end time

EVV requirements may vary from state to state. Approved methods of EVV tracking may include phone calls, the use of mobile apps and devices, and other approved methods. States that did not comply with EVV systems regulations were subject to decreases in federal medical assistance. Individual providers and agencies that do not comply with EVV regulations may be placed on a corrective action plan or have their contracts terminated by Medicaid HHS, according to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

What Does EVV Tracking Accomplish?

Ultimately, the purpose of EVV implementation is to introduce a new, electronic way to safeguard the quality of home healthcare visits and the bond of trust that should exist between a healthcare provider and the patient who will be a recipient of their services. It accomplishes this in a few different ways:

Ensuring Transparency 

At its core, enforcing EVV tracking is about creating an electronic, accessible record that provides details of all home healthcare visits. As we’ve mentioned above, the immediate impact of enforcing EVV compliance is that healthcare providers show they are committed to maintaining accountability in their organization and their workers by transparently and continuously providing organized, up-to-date visit records. 

Reducing Fraud and Errors

Thorough and well-organized EVV tracking methods can also help catch, prevent, and reduce fraud and errors in employee record-keeping. Human error in record-keeping is inevitable, but because EVV regulations encourage relaying information in as close to real-time as possible and require specific information, healthcare workers are more likely to take accurate and detailed notes during or right after visits. 

Streamlining Administrative Processes

Efficient, compliant EVV tracking also creates greater efficiency, streamlining administrative workflows. EVV tracking encourages digitization and portability, making necessary information for healthcare workers and providers more centralized and accessible. For example, a home healthcare worker well-versed in EVV may use their mobile phone to view up-to-date patient information, editing as necessary to schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments. Digitization also makes it easier to see exactly what changes are made and when.

Key Components of EVV Tracking

The Cures Act doesn’t go into detail on how exactly EVV should function, just the information that must be recorded. The best solutions for recording EVV information should first and foremost have capabilities for time and location verification. Location tracking options also help ensure visit authenticity. Additional important features to look for in EVV systems include the ability to document electronic signatures, real-time data transmission, and the ability to integrate smoothly with healthcare records. 

Using CompanyMileage for EVV

EVV tracking doesn’t have to be a chore. It’s a system that already benefits so much from the use of automation and digitization, that it would be a relatively smooth transition to use existing, intuitive tracking software to capture necessary information for EVV tracking. And what better existing intuitive tracking software than CompanyMileage? 

The same things that make our suite of software solutions so perfect for mileage tracking and reimbursement extend to EVV tracking as well! SureMileage, our mileage reimbursement software, already lets providers automatically and electronically record much of the other information required by EVV guidelines, such as time, date, and visit locations.

SureMobile, CompanyMileage’s mobile app, makes logging important visit information easier and faster than ever. Using our Check-In feature, workers can quickly submit GPS data to log trip information. The app also has a Quick Capture button that lets the user automatically capture the date, trip end time, and coordinates at the exact location of that trip, with the option to add more information later as needed.

Additionally, our software is already so highly utilized by workers in the healthcare field. Our system is highly secured, a testament to our dedication to protecting our users’ privacy and protected information, so you don’t need to compromise on security, either!

With EVV tracking now the letter of the law, there’s never been a better time to start using CompanyMileage and see for yourself the multitude of ways in which our automated, efficient software can help your organization. To learn more, contact us today for a free demo today!