HJAR Jan/Feb 2021

44 JAN / FEB 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS MEDICAID COLUMN MEDICAID DESIGNED to enhance quality and accuracy of in-home services, EVV offers a modern way for care providers to record their visits by location, time and tasks. EVV also pro- vides protection for clients, ensuring that they receive adequate healthcare through verification and validation. Lastly, EVV pre- vents fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicaid program through audits and compliance. Implementing Arkansas’s EVV System The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) Division of Medical Services (DMS) partnered with Fiserv to develop and vendors meet the State’s system criteria, including: • Complying with CMS requirements; • Configuring their system to match Au- thentiCare’s configuration rules; • Providing attestation that the configura- tion settings have been applied; • Capturing all the data fields required, as specified in the AuthentiCare Data Ag- gregator and Interface Guide; and • Successfully transmitting the informa- tion through one of the approved trans- port methods to Fiserv for daily upload intoAuthentiCare for claims processing. Innovations in Care Verification in Arkansas implement the flexible and secure EVV sys- tem, AuthentiCare, which is available to all provider agencies at no cost. AuthentiCare offers real-time reporting and monitoring in two ways: through a mobile application that is compatible with smartphones and tab- lets, and through a landline phone Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system for people who do not have smartphones or wireless access. As an alternative, DHS also allows provider agencies and Managed Care Organizations (MCO) to use a third-party EVV system in- stead of usingAuthentiCare. Although this is an option that many agencies have chosen, it is important that the selected, third-party Arkansas Medicaid continues efforts in its innovation to improve client care with anElectronicVisit Verification (EVV) systemcurrently being implemented that verifies personal care, attendant care and respite services for clients receiving in-home services.