August 3, 2020
The NCIL EVV Taskforce, formed in Spring 2018, has been hard at work on strategies to reverse the use of surveillance in electronic visit verification (EVV) for Medicaid-funded home care services. Promoted largely by for-profit companies that stand to reap windfall profits from the sales of their systems to states, EVV has been shown to be more harmful than good to people with disabilities and their care providers.
The successes of our communities rely on NCIL members and the broader disability community mobilizing to spread a single message to elected officials. There are two new opportunities you can join right now to help fight against EVV!
Support the COVID-19 Recovery for Seniors and People with Disabilities Act (H.R. 6951 / S. 3740) sponsored by Senators Bob Casey, Sherrod Brown, and Doug Jones in the Senate and Representative Janice Schakowsky
In addition to providing vital support for independent living services for seniors and people with disabilities, S. 3740 and H.R. 6951 specifically recognizes that EVV is a barrier to home and community-based services. The bill would delay implementation of EVV until six months after the end of the national public health emergency.
An additional delay gives the disability and senior communities time to organize around legislative initiatives that will ban the use of geolocation and biometrics in EVV.
Contact your Senators to ask for their support and YES vote on S. 3740 COVID-19 Recovery for Seniors and People with Disabilities Act to delay EVV. Contact your Congressional Representative to ask for their support and YES vote on H.R. 6951.
Support the 21st Century Cures Act 2.0 sponsored by Representatives DeGette and Upton
Provided as an update to the original Cures Act, which requires EVV, Cures 2.0 is bipartisan legislation. With support of a coalition of advocacy groups, including NCIL, the House Energy & Commerce Committee will introduce legislative clarification to the Cures Act late this year or early next that year will eliminate geolocation (GPS) and biometrics in EVV.
We must continue to demonstrate the community’s support of Cures 2.0 with these EVV changes to ensure it passes. Use the NCIL survey results (below) as talking points.
Contact your Congressional Representative to ask for their support and YES vote on the 21st Century Cures 2.0 proposal with EVV changes.
NCIL Survey Demonstrates EVV Implementation Causing Severe Harm to Disabled People, Disrupting Home Care Services
Justified as necessary to address unsubstantiated claims of fraud and abuse in delivery of Medicaid-funded home care services, EVV is now being implemented in different versions across the nation. In reality, EVV creates government surveillance that discourages personal care service workers from taking these jobs, resulting in more people with significant disabilities ending up in nursing homes because they can’t get the care they need.
The NCIL EVV Task Force conducted a nationwide survey with a goal to answer what effect EVV was having on quality of life, provision of services, and independent living stability.
Read the survey results in PDF, Word, or plain text.
Survey results indicate that EVV use is systematically dismantling the control disabled people have in directing their personal care services. Further, because of its outrageous privacy rights violations, EVV has caused significant worker shortages principally due to workers not wanting to be surveilled by the government.
Prohibition of GPS tracking and biometric data use in EVV would provide protections against the worst of the harm being caused.
NCIL needs you to act to stop the damage that EVV is causing! Help save our people from unnecessary institutionalization!
Contact your Senators and Congressional Representative by phone or email today.
Tweet your Congressmembers using their @ handle and include #WeAreEssential #StopEVV.
Send the survey results to Congress members. Use this data and information when you speak about EVV.
Share this action alert with your family, friends and social media networks!