Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Medical Assistance Services
 
Board
Board of Medical Assistance Services
 
Guidance Document Change: This is to provide an update to and supersedes the “Face-to-Face and Case Management Visits” Medicaid Bulletin posted on March 17, 2022.
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12/2/22  3:55 pm
Commenter: Anonymous

Please keep visits virtual
 

I want to express my concern about having the Service Facilitator in the house on a regular basis. I, the father, have CLL and am immunocompromised

The Facilitator will be out visiting a number of other houses in addition to their regular community activities with the potential for acquiring infections, not just Covid. The Facilitator appears to be schedule constrained to conduct the virtual visit on a monthly basis, so I am concerned that the visit would not be rescheduled if the Facilitator was a bit under the weather. The in-person check also puts the Facilitator at risk. The RACSB representative also checks on our son, so there is a built in backstop to the system. Currently our son’s aide has minimal contact with my wife and I so we feel there is a buffer.

Ignoring the health risk to the family and the Facilitator, it would seem that agencies would have learned from the pandemic that it is okay to conduct business in different ways. If the need is to chat with the client and caregiver for a few minutes, it would seem that  could be done virtually. If there are warning signs, schedule an in-person visit. From our view the virtual connection works. Virtual visits would let each Facilitator interview significantly more folks in a day and they wouldn’t have to be driving around. Scheduling virtual visits would also be a lot easier to accomplish without having to worry about geographic locations. 

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

 

CommentID: 206480