Whether it’s waiting for ticket sales to open for a concert for your favorite band, waiting for the clock to turn midnight to celebrate your birthday, or another scenario, almost everyone has experienced watching the clock to turn a specific time for one reason or another. When we have to wait until an exact time for something, time often goes by really slowly. Regardless of rather it’s for a good or bad thing, people get anxious about waiting. Often, the same feeling occurs when people are under a certain time limit to complete a task. One often feels pressure or anxiety when being timed to complete tasks. For people with disabilities who need assistance with basic needs, this feeling just got amplified thanks to a new federal mandate.

For years, the words “Electronic Visit Verification” (EVV) have been floating around the disability community. It’s basically where in-home caregivers have to log in and out for each shift. To the average person, this doesn’t sound like a big issue. Employees have to sign in and out at lot of jobs, right? What is the problem with that? Well, let me try to explain.

In long-term care programs, participants usually get a certain amount of care hours based on annual assessments. There are different types of care hours people qualify for—like Personal Care, Supportive Home Care, and Respite Care. I have Personal Care and Supportive Home Care. I have a certain number of each that I’m allotted weekly/monthly. Some people can just use the hours on whims notice. In my situation, it’s best to have a standing schedule of care. I have the different hours divided up each day and it usually doesn’t vary too much. I’ve been hiring and scheduling all of my own caregivers for over five years now, and I’m really glad I’ve done it this way all along--especially with this new mandate. If you don’t use the hours, you lose them. Generally, you want to use all the hours you can, so you don’t risk having your amount cut due to lack of use. I’ve learned it’s much more difficult to increase your hours than it is to have them cut back.

For the past five years, I’ve had certain scheduled shift times. My workers would enter the shifts into the portal, submit it at the end of each time period, and then I would approve it. Since my shift times stay the same, it worked pretty well--everyone knew exactly what to put. When I started hearing about EVV a few years ago, I knew it’d be a big hassle, and I was right.

My Fiscal Employment Agency (FEA) chose not to use the software application that the state came out with. Instead, they had to get the software that they were going to use approved by the state. The Department of Health sent out a large packet of information about their system back in November which caused mass confusion. I think all of the FEAs and IRIS consultants got bombarded with questions by anxious and confused participants. At the time, my FEA told us to not worry about it and more information would be coming. For months, I had been hearing people who have other FEAs starting to use EVV. I thought it was a little weird my FEA seemed to be so far behind, but I certainly wasn’t going to question it. In January, I started seeing advertisements to sign up for training through the FEA. I signed up for a session, but as it turned out, they were doing it over the phone (instead of on the computer) at the time, so I couldn’t participate. I had my mom do the training, so she could fill me in. At the time, their software system hadn’t been approved, so the training was pretty useless. In May, I started receiving emails saying to look for information about EVV coming soon. I told my workers to start watching their inboxes for information about it. A few weeks ago, some of my workers and I received an email about how to set it up, but some of my workers didn’t receive it. The email was very vague and didn’t have a start date. I assumed more information would be coming, so I didn’t start. About a week or so ago, I received an email from the FEA asking why there has been no shifts logged in the EVV system. I replied saying that only a couple of my workers received an email and there wasn’t a start date. That got the ball rolling. They asked for email addresses for the people who didn’t get it, and said we should start as soon as possible. They explained that it is a “soft launch” meaning that the time sheets will still be used for payment while the kinks get worked out of this new system. Eventually, though, this will replace timesheets.

With the new EVV system, workers download an app on their phone to sign in/out of every shift. If a worker doesn’t have a smart phone or doesn’t want to download the app, there are other options to log in/out (such as a number to call or even a device the participant can request to time in/out). Luckily, my workers are young and tech savvy, so using the app isn’t a big deal. However, it’s a real pain having to log in/out at an exact time. I’ve always had a pretty lenient relationship with my workers. If we got done with everything I need done a few minutes early, I’d let them leave and chart the full shift on the timesheet; on the flip side, if I needed a few minutes more of assistance, they’d stay, but only put the regular amount of time on the timesheet. That all came to a screeching halt when we started EVV.

I now have five alarms set on my phone each day. Each one is a reminder to sign in or out of a shift. My night shift is split into two separate types of care, so, now, at 5:30 each night, we have to stop what we’re doing and the worker has to sign out of one shift and into another. It is ridiculous! Typical people don’t live “on the clock,” but that’s essentially what this is making people in my circumstances have to do. It makes me so angry! I understand that it’s meant to prevent fraud, but it’s also not fair to the participants. I have to literally keep my eye on the on time 24/7 now. At least, for now, the app just asks people to check the tasks for each shift rather than having to select tasks for specific minutes in the shift. If that ever happens, it’s going to be even more of a chaotic mess. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen!

Fortunately, I’m in the IRIS program, so I don’t have to worry about location. Unlike other long-term care programs, participants in IRIS can receive cares outside of my home. Thank goodness! For those who are in other programs can only receive personal care in their home. The app does track location, but, as long as I’m with the worker (obviously), location shouldn’t matter.  I consider myself fortunate in that aspect.

Most people don’t live life on the clock, but that’s what many people like myself are being forced to do. I think it’s obvious that I’m not happy about this new mandate, but it is what it is. I have no choice but to embrace this new system, and figure out what is going to work best for me. Is it fair that I’m on the clock all day everyday? Absolutely not, but the reality is life isn’t fair for anyone!

***The views expressed here are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of InControl Wisconsin, the Network or any of our sponsors.