The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases among an aging population, coupled with a growing overall population, is placing significant pressure on healthcare providers. To meet the evolving needs of patients and enhance the quality of care, healthcare providers are increasingly turning to the adoption of the latest technology trends and tools.

As per a report in 2021 by the US Department of Health and Human Services, over 840,000 Medicare visits were conducted via telehealth in 2019; and 52.7 million in 2020. This substantial increase underscores the growing importance of technology-driven solutions in the healthcare industry, especially in the context of home-based care. With more people using telehealth services, caregivers must be in top gear to offer valuable patient care.

Earlier, we have discussed how automation plays a major role in simplifying the admission and discharge process. In this blog, we will explore the importance of electronic visit verification (EVV) and how automation can add an extra layer of efficiency for caregivers and patients.

What is Electronic Visit Verification Process(EVV)?

Electronic visit verification (EVV) is applicable to home care medical services. The federal 21st Century Cures Act (Section 12006) requires all states to put Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) into effect. This applies to all Medicaid-covered personal care and some supportive home care services. However, the EVV requirements may differ from state to state depending on the nature of the healthcare business.

All care organizations that provide assistance to patients in their homes will eventually be compelled to use EVV tracking.
The Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) system requires track of-

  • Type of services performed
  • Location of service delivery
  • Medical notes generated
  • Precise location and date of service
  • The person providing the service
  • The person receiving the service
  • Time the service begins and ends
  • Caregiver and care recipient signature approval

Challenges with the Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Process

While the idea behind EVV systems is noble and necessary, implementing them has brought forth its own set of challenges for home care providers:

  1. Compliance Complexity

    Meeting the compliance requirements set by Medicaid can be a complex and daunting task. Providers must adhere to state-specific rules and regulations, which often vary considerably. This complexity leads to a high risk of non-compliance and subsequent penalties.

  2. Administrative Burden

    EVV systems, in their current manual form, demand a significant amount of administrative effort. Caregivers are required to record detailed visit information manually into the EHR system. In case Geolocation is not working, homecare providers have to manually collect all details in the preferred state language, like missing signatures, get approval from care recipients, and update the data in the system. On top of that if homecare providers were unable to get details on time there is a chance of missing payout for caregiver.

  3. Limited Focus on Care

    The administrative burden placed on caregivers often detracts from their primary focus – providing quality care to patients. Suppose a caregiver’s mobile is not working, and he missed the clock-in and clock-out while providing home-health care services. These technical glitches distract the care recipients and can lead to burnout and reduced job satisfaction among staff.

AutomationEdge CareFlo EVV Bot at Rescue

AutomationEdge’s CareFlow EVV Bot offers a GPS-based Mobile application that communicates with caregivers and updates the required shift and service details in the system. Using a combination of technologies like Robotic Process Automation, AI, Chatbots, Voice bots, API integrations, Machine Learning, and Optical Character Recognition, it simplified the value-added care for clients.

Let’s see how the AutomationEdge CareFlo EVV bot helps homecare and healthcare providers. This EVV bot-

  • Captures credible proofs of missing shifts and service details of the employee
  • Provides multilingual support (English, Russian, Spanish, French, Arabic, etc.)
  • Empowers home care agencies to comply with their State EVV requirements
  • Enables GPS-enabled verification
  • Provides accurate data for payroll processing
  • Eliminates paperwork
  • Handles follow-ups until a response is received

AutomationEdge RPA in Healthcare : Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Process Automation

How AutomationEdge CareFlo EVV Bot Helped Devoted Guardians Reducing 90% of Manual Workload?

Devoted Guardians is an in-home care provider of comprehensive home support services to help seniors and disabled individuals who need assistance with daily living. Its professional and compassionate caregivers help patients with daily needs and also arrange for a variety of other services, such as music therapy, hair styling, landscaping, and home repairs, that are simply not available at other home care agencies in Arizona.

The home care agency was struggling with a number of challenges-

  1. Manually handling 50 to 100 Texts or Calls (end-to-end Conversations) to Caregivers and Patients
  2. Missing Billing and point calculations due to missing shifts impact the Caregiver’s Payment which causes Employee dissatisfaction
  3. Offering multilingual support to caregivers and patient
  4. Calculate and caregiver points and offer a live dashboard

After studying and understanding the home care and home health operations of the client AutomationEdge came up with Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) and Point System Dashboard Automation.

The homecare automation approach included:

  • The manual process is initiated when Devoted Guardians Staff members (Caregivers) use the ClearCare application to clock in/out of their shifts.
  • AutomationEdge CareFlo EVV Bot performed an extraction of missing shifts and their details, Caregiver/Client’s preference for Text/Voice, Language, POA details and Phone numbers.
  • Updating missing details AutomationEdge RPA Bot performed an extraction of different reports from different sources and records for different categories from extracted reports.
  • Calculated and updated caregivers’ points based on defined rules for each category.

Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Process Workflow with AutomationEdge CareFlo Bot

Conclusion

Considering the challenges that homecare providers struggle with, the adoption of automation can turn the challenges into opportunities. Right from getting real-time data from caregivers to getting approval from care recipients, RPA bots can reduce the administrative burden for homecare providers. Hence it is time for homecare healthcare providers to get rid of the old-age legacy system and step up their game with automation in the healthcare process.

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