Changes are coming to how Virginia families on Medicaid report their homecare work. But one elected official is asking for a delay in those changes after advocates and families expressed concerns about the rollout of the system.
Tammy Whitlock is with the state’s Medicaid agency. She told the Virginia Disability Commission that the state’s use of electronic visit verification, or EVV, would help address fraud and waste concerns out of Washington.
“It is the best way to show what we know is the services we’re paying for are the services, the hours being delivered; they equal,” she told the commission Tuesday.
EVV is a phone app that replaces an online timesheet that’s been used by the Commonwealth’s about 50,000 home caregivers. About 5,000 of them are already using the program and the state says it will increase accountability and will help ensure the right services are being given.
“This regular updating of information is going to help provide the most up to date care needed for that child and I think it's a great step forward,” said Orange County Republican Delegate Phillip Scott.
But public testimony was full of caregivers and advocates who said the roll out of the system was rushed. They fear failing to comply could see their benefits cut - though the state says that won't happen.
And Thursday, just ahead of the October 1 start date, Fairfax-area Democratic Delegate Laura Jane Cohen asked Governor Abigail Spanberger for more time for caregivers she described as already overwhelmed.
“If it really isn’t going to be this burdensome thing then they should have an opportunity to hear from families about how it is going to work for them,” Cohen told Radio IQ ahead of the letter being sent to the Governor.
The delegate asked the governor and her Health Secretary Marvin Figueroa to move the start date to January 1, 2027.
