Just as nutrition and exercise are vital to an individual’s health, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) is necessary for the business wellbeing of a home healthcare organization. An EVV system electronically verifies the date, time and location of the patient visit. Using an Electronic Visit Verification system creates a culture of compliance within a home health organization and helps agencies ensure they are submitting claims for visits that took place at the time and place indicated.
With healthcare trends moving towards reimbursement cuts and audits, home health agencies nationwide are benefitting from Electronic Visit Verification. Agencies that implement EVV systems find that they save on labor costs, specifically in Quality Assurance (QA) and payroll services. For home health agencies, this could mean survival in this ever-changing industry.
Here are five facts about Electronic Visit Verification:
1. Ease of Use. Implementing and using an Electronic Visit Verification system is easy. There’s no software or hardware to install. When used with a mobile app on a device like a Smartphone or tablet, the EVV system will automatically track a clinician’s location when they ‘check-in’ and ‘check-out’ at the patient’s home. There’s no need to be tech savvy with EVV; if someone can use a phone, they can use EVV.
2. Maximizing compliance. Clinicians are able to prove compliance when they ‘check-in’ and deliver care at the time and place needed. Agencies are compliant by providing electronic documentation of vital signs and services with time stamps. EVV gives you the proof of care in case of an audit. A mobile app with EVV time-stamps the clinician’s visits. This captures accurate data for employee payroll processing and verifies if the clinician arrived at the scheduled time.
3. Some states mandate it. Many states already require home health care to have an electronic tracking system and most allow agencies to choose their own vendors. Electronic Visit Verification is already mandatory in Florida, South Carolina, Illinois, Tennessee and Texas. Several more states are considering mandating EVV, as the government works to reduce costs lost annually to medical fraud. The smartest move a home health agency can make now is to adopt EVV ahead of the curve.
4. Reduces errors. Electronic Visit Verification minimizes the risk of billing errors and misassumptions of fraud by guaranteeing that the patient was serviced thru GPS technology, thus having accurate visit verification.
5. Saves time and money. Electronic Visit Verification eliminates waste and redundant resources. QA providers at home health agencies will spend less time verifying visits. Visits can be seen immediately by agency professionals, which eliminate the need for ‘spot checks.’ In addition, the speed at which payments are processed and paid is accelerated with EVV. Speedier payments improve an agency’s revenue cycle and allows for faster business growth.
