Opposing Electronic Visit Verification, Statement & Document Links

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Adrienne

Statement in Opposition and Questions about Electronic Visit Verification (EVV)

My name is Hannah Karpilow, I have been an IHSS worker since 1981 and I work for people in my community, not family. I have also been involved in recruiting and referring workers, for IHSS and private pay clients. Unfortunately, I have seen the IHSS program go from bad to worse in terms of bureaucratic incompetence. It is this incompetence and the scrutiny that we are subject to, that turns people away from working within the system. Adding this level of surveillance will only increase this problem, and at a time when we desperately need to be increasing the workforce to meet the needs of the aging population. 
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Besides the morality of this policy, I am not going to contribute suggestions on how to implement the Electronic Visit Verification because I see it as a completely fraudulent use of tax dollars no matter how it is rolled out. 
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I would like to get some numbers. Before you go to far with this, we should have an idea of what it will cost the taxpayers – both State and Federal. I understand the Feds will pick up 90% of the design and implementation, and 75% of the maintenance costs. It’s all taxpayers dollars. What is the ballpark range of the initial phase? What about ongoing? Surely some numbers are available based on other states’ costs. These need to be looked at closely and compared with two figures: One, the projected cost SAVINGS that the EVV is intended to net, based on fraud (real and perceived), and two, the penalties for non-compliance. 
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There’s also the question of why this is necessary when we have social workers who visit our clients to assess their needs and confirm that those needs are being met. Can’t we trust them to make accurate observations and assessments based on these visits? 
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Our great State of California has fought back against Federal legislation that regards people as criminals simply for being born in another country even when they were brought here as infants. This EVV legislation regards people as criminals simply for being poor and disabled or working in a job that is given such low status that in some cases we earn less than minimum wage. 
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I urge the stakeholders and policy makers to consider scrapping the design phase and focus instead on how to repeal this legislation based on the civil rights laid out in the 1999 Olmstead Decision of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Clearly this policy is not for the benefit of home care recipients or providers, but for high paid consultants and technology companies to profit on our backs. 
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