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Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

New EVV Advocacy Document and Opportunities to Take Action!

Since its creation earlier this year, NCIL’s Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Task Force has closely followed federal and state activity and has been hard at work strategizing and advocating against EVV. With EVV systems rolling out around the country, one thing has been made clearer than ever: EVV is harmful and discriminatory, and it undermines consumer direction – a key tenet of the Independent Living Movement! In addition, it is an absolute violation of our privacy and has a chilling effect on workers continuing or entering the labor force of personal care services providers. All of these issues combined will result in putting our right to live independently in the community in severe jeopardy.

NCIL logo - National Council on Independent LivingThe NCIL EVV Task Force has created the following Principles & Goals document to guide NCIL’s work, and we hope our members will be able to use this to guide their advocacy on the issue as well. Please feel free to use this document (as a whole or in pieces) as you see fit in your advocacy. Please also share this document with your networks and encourage everyone you know to learn more about why EVV is so harmful to people with disabilities!

Opportunities to Take Action

  1. Provide input to CMS!

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will host an Open Door Forum via national conference call to solicit stakeholder feedback on EVV implementation. We encourage all interested individuals to participate in the call on November 7 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Eastern at (800) 837-1935, Conference ID 33979177. We also urge you to submit comments. Please submit your comments on EVV to CMS at [email protected] by October 26, 2018 and include “November 7 Stakeholder Call Feedback” in the subject line of the email. NCIL believes EVV threatens decades of independent living advocacy work and privacy rights of disabled citizens. Please let CMS know that you support the NCIL EVV Principles and Goals document with your comments. Feel free to copy sections from the document that speak to your specific concerns and/or write your own unique statement. 

  1. Help Us Document the Impact of EVV!

Now that more states have implemented EVV, we are once again looking to you to share your experiences with us. NCIL remains committed to considering all available options to fight this harmful law, and in order to do so, we need your help! Please share your experiences with us. Please answer the questions below, and share any other relevant information, by Friday, October 26, 2018. Send your responses to Lindsay Baran at [email protected].

  • Has your state implemented or begun to implement EVV?
  • How does EVV work in your state? For instance, are they using telephonic timekeeping? Are they requiring the use of GPS tracking? Does the system involve random checks, or complex activity logs? Share the details with us.
  • Have you been personally affected by EVV? For instance, have you been more restricted from accessing your community freely? Have problems with the system or technology delayed payments? Have attendants quit due to new burdensome requirements?
  1. Share this email!

Forward this email to your networks and then encourage them to take action! Ask your networks to contact CMS ahead of the October 26th deadline, and ask them to share their EVV stories with us!

Comments

  1. IM ALL FOR ELECTRONICSIGN IN FOR PATIENTS, AIDS ARE LAZY THEY DONT WANT TO WORK, THEY WANT TO SIT AROUND AND WATCH TV OR GOSSOP IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM, THEY CALL IT MODERN DAY SLAVERY GIVE ME A BREAK IF THEY DONT LIKE THE HEAT GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN , I SEE AIDS DOING NOTHING ALL DAY, THEY ARE IN MY LOBBY GOSSOPING ILL SAY SIGN THEM ALL IN !

    • That might be true in some nursing homes situation, or daycare programs but in a home situation they can’t cause fraud because the parents need to sign them in and out! So if you’re insinuating that EVV is good your not completely right! Lets see if you would like to be located everywhere you go! We will fight this all the way as a parent of two severely handicapped adults, next thing you know they will make you wear a chip, think about what you’re saying.