Nebraska Providers Free to Choose Another Vendor

Nebraska has chosen to implement an open vendor model, which means that providers are allowed to use any compliant EVV vendor as long as it can interface with the state’s EVV system. Providers will have to cover any costs involved in developing the interfaces between systems. They may also choose to use the state’s system.

Nebraska has not announced which vendor it will contract with for the state system.

Programs Affected: Personal Assistance Services (PAS), AD Waiver Chore and Respite, as well as certain other services for people served by the Division of Developmental Disabilities, such as Adult Companion, Homemaker and In-Home Residential

Arkansas State EVV Updates

Arkansas Providers On Edge While DHS Deliberates EVV Vendor

Arkansas has chosen to use a state-mandated external vendor, but has not yet chosen a vendor.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) solicited RFPs on January 8, 2018. Deadline for responses was January 17, 2018. The contract is for a minimum of one year and a maximum of 7 years. The state has not awarded the contract to a single vendor yet.

Programs Affected: Personal Care services, self-directed personal assistance services and attendant care services, home health services (including home health nursing, home health aide and therapist services), homemaker or chore services

mySeries

8 Standalone Solutions for Your Agency

Every provider faces a unique set of workforce challenges; some suffer from high turnover, while others struggle to communicate with their employees, and still others can’t be sure their overnight workers are staying awake. Because providers have such a variety of needs, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. That is why Agency Workforce Management includes a set of standalone solutions called the mySeries.

mySeries solutions are all standalone systems, but they also integrate with each other. This allows providers to choose as many or as few solutions as they need. Just need a quick fix to a single problem? Great! Maybe you want two? No problem. Each solution in the mySeries targets a different area of workforce management.

myApplicants – Applicant Tracking System

Amidst this labor shortage, many providers are short-staffed. They are also facing tough competition for employees, resulting in high turnover rates, especially for direct service professionals. Turnover also leads to more overtime, as employees work long hours to cover shifts for those who quit.

myApplicants is a powerful applicant tracking system designed to raise staffing levels, reduce turnover, and slash overtime. It does this by expediting the recruiting process, expanding job description viewership, and helping agencies choose the best fit for each position.

 

myAttendance – Time & Attendance for EVV Compliance

By the end of the year, every provider of personal care services will be subject to an EVV mandate. The details vary by state, but some providers will have the freedom to use an EVV vendor of their choice. Many of those providers just want to become EVV-compliant without revamping everything; myAttendance is the simple solution for these providers.

myAttendance is an EVV-compliant timekeeping solution that supports telephone timekeeping with caller-ID and web clock with GPS geo-fencing and out of area alerts. It can also produce in-depth reports and integrate with billing and payroll. Providers in states that already have active EVV mandates, such as Louisiana and Missouri, have successfully adopted myAttendance for timekeeping and visit verification.

 

myCheckIn – Overnight Awake Safety

Staying awake during an overnight shift – especially if all the clients are asleep – is difficult. Almost as difficult, as a manager, is ensuring your employees are awake and onsite even when you are asleep at home. Providers may take precautions to keep overtired employees off the night shift, but they rarely have concrete assurance that this is enough. That is, unless they have myCheckIn.

myCheckIn requires overnight workers to, well, check in at regular intervals, such as every 30 minutes. This proves they are awake and in the right location throughout the night. Not only does myCheckIn give managers peace of mind about the clients’ safety, it also provides third-party verification that the provider meets staff-to-client ratios at night.

 

myClients – Client Attendance and Billing

Medicaid providers manage a lot of client activities and requirements. Rather than tracking everything in disparate systems, providers can keep all their client information in one place with myClients. This is convenient and it reduces the probability of mistakes.

myClients is a provider’s hub for its clients’ activities, billing, and payroll. On top of client attendance in day programs, myClients can capture documentation, generate billing reports, integrate with a third-party billing system, and track client work activity in vocational programs. It is available in four tiers of functionality, so providers never have to buy more than they need.

 

myCommunications – Employee Communication Portal

One of the top reasons employees leave their jobs is lack of communication. When agencies do not open a clear path of communication between employees and managers, workers start to lose focus. They may eventually disengage from their jobs if they lack consistent direction and insight.

myCommunications is a two-way messaging system designed for providers to replace email. Providers can use it to order supplies, report problems, report incidents, or send general notifications. Also, since email lists are difficult to maintain, especially in a high-turnover industry, myCommunications automatically adds employees upon hire and blocks them upon termination.

 

myMaintenance – Safety and Inspection Tracking

Client safety is paramount in group homes, day programs, and service vehicles. But the most important factors of a safe environment – inspections and maintenance – are easily rushed or overlooked. Or, when providers capture inspections on paper, they are easily lost. Providers with poor or missing inspection records can inadvertently allow maintenance deadlines to lapse, thereby endangering their clients.

myMaintenance helps providers easily track inspections, service requests, scheduled maintenance, repairs, and more. It generates reminders if a service request is open for too long, automatically schedules recurring work orders, and ensures inspections are thoroughly tracked. Providers can easily access all these records in an online portal without fear of losing them.

 

mySchedules – Staff and Client Scheduling

Is overtime a constant problem for your agency? You are not alone. Many providers are struggling to fill all their positions due to the labor shortage, resulting in overtime for current employees. To make things worse, some still create employee schedules in Excel or even on paper; these providers have no visibility into overtime rates, schedule/timesheet variances, or employee availability without analyzing all their records manually.

mySchedules is an automated scheduling solution that gives managers the insight necessary to reduce overtime. With mySchedules, providers can post staff and client schedules immediately, update them from any web-enabled device, set reminders, and run powerful reports. The solution can also filter employees by hours, location, training status, schedule preference, and more; this allows managers to quickly choose the best employees for each shift without overloading anyone.

 

myTraining – Training and Certification Tracking

An agency is not audit-ready unless all its employees are up-to-date on required licenses and certifications. However, tracking this information is often time-consuming. And making sure employees complete their re-certs before the deadline is even more difficult.

myTraining is a solution that tracks training requirements and employees’ certification status. It sends reminders, automates training class enrollment, and provides a central web location to advertise classes and tests. With myTraining, managers can view the status of their employees in just a glance.

Hawaii Pushes Back EVV Deadline

The Hawaii Department of Human Services estimates the start date for EVV implementation will occur after the federal deadline of January 1, 2019. The state has submitted its concerns with the deadline to CMS.

DHS announced that providers will use an EVV system approved by the Med-QUEST Division, but has not yet chosen the system.

Programs Affected: Personal Care Services (PCS) provided in the home and the community, nursing services provided in the home and community, home health agency services – EVV for Self Direction/Consumer Directed Services program is still under discussion

Maine Asks Providers to Complete Survey by June 25th

Maine has released a provider survey to determine how prepared providers are for the EVV mandate and whether they have questions or concerns. The deadline to complete the survey is June 25th.

The state plans to offer an EVV system and allow providers to choose any system that integrates with it. Three regional public forums will take place this summer and provider training will start in the fall.

Programs Affected: Consumer directed attendant services, community support services, HCBS for adults with brain injury, HCBS for the elderly and adults with disabilities, rehabilitative and community support services for children with cognitive impairments and functional limitations, support services for adults with intellectual disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder, home health services, private duty nursing and personal care services, home and community benefits for the elderly and adults with disabilities