Recently, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced the soft launch of Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) will be extended. Originally, hard launch was supposed to begin January 1,2022; however, they're extending the soft launch period.

With the soft launch extension:

• EVV is still required for Medicaid-covered personal care and applicable supportive home care services and has been since November 2, 2020.
• Provider agencies that are not currently using EVV are out of compliance with current DHS policy.
• Fee-for-service claims without EVV data will be paid.
• DHS has encouraged health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and managed care organizations (MCOs) to continue to pay claims without EVV data until the new hard launch date. This will provide consistency and coordination for provider agencies within the EVV program.
• Services without EVV data will be included in future capitation rate setting development for HMOs and MCOs.
• IRIS (Include, Respect, I Self-Direct) fiscal employer agencies will not deny payment for provider agency claims until the new hard launch date.
• The IRIS non-compliant participant disenrollment process will be delayed. Participants are out of compliance with current DHS policy if their participant-hired workers are not using an EVV system during the soft launch phase.
• Provider agencies choosing to use an alternate EVV system that is not certified should complete the certification process as soon as possible. They are out of compliance with current DHS policy if they are not using an EVV system during soft launch phase.
• In fee-for-service, the Sandata EVV system is not a replacement for Record of Care timesheets until the new hard launch date.

DHS will continue to monitor the status of EVV and will be taking additional actions to further promote EVV usage and provider compliance during the extension.

Payers, provider agencies, and workers should use this extension to become more efficient with EVV, streamline processes, and take additional training as needed.

Wisconsin EVV Customer Care

If you have questions or comments about EVV, please contact Wisconsin EVV Customer Care via email or phone at 833-931-2035. Customer Care hours are Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–6 p.m. CT.

Annual Survey of Training Interests and Needs

WisTech is looking ahead to 2022 and would like your input on what training topics you are interested in. This survey will be used to guide them in selecting speakers and content for  professional development trainings. The deadline is Friday, December 10.

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Disability advocates are reacting with a mix of relief, disappointment, and managed expectations to the recent announcement of a “framework” deal to pass the Biden Administration’s “Build Back Better” social spending plan, which supporters hope will be accompanied by its parallel physical infrastructure plan. The original plans included many disability priorities such as a major boost in funding for home-and-community-based services and a big update to Social Security. 

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• Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) via video-conferencing.
• Chronic Pain Self-Management Program (CPSMP) via telephone and toolkit.
• Diabetes Self-Management Program (DSMP) via video-conferencing.
• EnhanceFitness via video-conferencing.
• HealthyIDEAS via phone.
• HomeMeds via phone.
• Walk with Ease via self-directed enhanced toolkit.

Due to the caregiver shortage across the country, family caregivers are overwhelmed and feeling the brunt of it. Advocates are highlighting three policy changes that would greatly help reelevate some of the stress for family caregivers. 

• Expanding the state's unpaid family medical leave law 
• Expanding resources for Aging and Disability Resource Centers 
• Creating a partial tax cut for qualified expenses 

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Congress is considering legislation to expand the availability of Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) by making additional resources available to states as part of a larger reconciliation bill. Although the reconciliation bill does not have bipartisan support, Democrats and Republicans have historically supported efforts to expand HCBS. This report focuses on streamlining and simplifying states’ HCBS waiver and state plan authorities into a single state plan amendment (SPA), with the goal of reducing complexity for states administering the programs and for beneficiaries navigating the system. Streamlining and simplifying the program would make services more uniform from state to state and across populations within a state. 

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The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the availability of $3.5 million in Fiscal Year 2021 competitive grant funding for projects that improve access to vital services for older adults and people with disabilities, and in low-income communities. The main purpose of the Innovated Coordinated Access and Mobility (ICAM) Program is to improve access to public transportation by building partnerships among health, transportation, and other service providers. This program provides competitive funding to support innovative projects for the transportation disadvantaged that will improve the coordination of transportation services and non-emergency medical transportation services (NEMT). In the FY 2021 program, FTA intends to target funding for regional and statewide mobility management capital projects that support coordination and enable comprehensive community access, including access to NEMT, for underserved groups.

Eligible applicants are designated or direct recipients of FTA’s Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disability Formula Program, which provides formula funding to states for the purpose of assisting private nonprofit groups in meeting the transportation needs of older adults and people with disabilities when the transportation service provided is unavailable, insufficient, or inappropriate to meeting these needs.

In addition applicants must serve as the lead agency of a regional or statewide consortium that includes stakeholders from transportation, healthcare, human service, or other sectors. FTA requires that applicants demonstrate that the proposed project was planned through an inclusive process with the involvement of the transportation, healthcare, and human service sectors.

Applicants must submit a proposal electronically by December 6. A synopses and full announcement are posted on Grants.gov. 

President Biden is moving forward with his push for the biggest increase to home-and-community-based services in 40 years. The reconciliation package includes $150 billion for Medicaid home and community-based services to help get people with disabilities off of waiting lists and address issues regarding the workforce of direct support professionals. 

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