My email to DMAS:

Dear Community Partner -

After sorting the widespread app glitch I had to go to the web portal to enter online my last shift yesterday which was deleted when the app died. I checked that the previous shift was clocked out at exactly 5pm. I attempted to begin the missing shift at 5pm and was told twice that it crossed over an already approved shift.

I gave up and selected the next available time of 5:05pm. There is no 1 minute increment online. It's all 5 min increments.

I know $1 isn't much, but if that happens frequently it does add up and for people only working part time it does matter.

What matters more is that it a) gives the appearance that the client was potentially without supervision for 5 minutes during shift change and b) it means folks losing money from their pocket and when you have thousands of clients, each with several attendants working several shifts each day times how frequently this could occur, it's an enormous amount of money being taken from already underpaid people.

What happens on January 1 when we can no longer go into the web portal to enter time? For me, last night, that would have been 5.5 hours of pay and far more if I hadn't been able to reregister my device at midnight because I was slated to sign back in at 6am and didn't get a call back til 3:30pm.

Meanwhile this took time last night I should have been focused on my consumer as I struggled to get the app back up and running.

For me personally it's absurd because I am a live in provider and the feds do not even require that I use the EVV system. Virginia is requiring it. I worry every time my alarm goes off that it's time to change from attendant to companion care or back. Why? Well, many times we are out in the community and I'm never sure how far is too far from home. We volunteer with Prince William Food Rescue as a community service project for my consumer so he can increase his socialization and meet goals listed in his plan. Sometimes we are in a moving car and I have to pull over to make this switch or wait until I stop which means going over in one service area which I try to mentally adjust later and results in a reduction of pay most weeks as all the little tidbits of time do add up to hours by the end of two weeks.

I rarely leave his side. Only to sleep and shower before he wakes. But the constant clocking in and out with trickling tidbits of time is like the bits and pieces left in your cache on a hard drive. I clear them by simply not getting paid for the entire amount. It's fine. I don't mind it. Other people would quit over it, which is exactly why I am a paid provider as a parent to my adult son. No one outside my home would ever tolerate the missed wages, app glitches, repeated phone calls, online corrections, service facilitation errors, plan approval delays, prior authorization hang ups etc that I have endured.

I have gone nearly three months without pay before. I have lost countless attendants for administrative issues beyond my control. I only understand it because in another life I was a case manager and service facilitator so I know how complicated the whole system is.

In all of this I am fully grateful for Virginia allowing me to be my adult son's provider because I could not be a reliable employee for someone else while trying to sort out other reliable care for my son and muddle through these glitches. I did it for years when he was a child as his EOR and it was horrid.

I'm also grateful for each and every cog in this wheel from the folks at DBHDS to PPL, CDCN, Moms In Motion, KePro, DSS, all the way back to the DDWaiver Unit folks at DMAS many years ago when my son first became a waiver recipient. I know everyone is overworked, underpaid, confused and frustrated with the constantly changing regulations, redesign, coordination and expectations put upon them as they attempt to serve those who rely on these services so vital to their safety, independence, sanity and physical health.

My gratitude extends to you, whoever you are, who had the misfortune to receive my lengthy diatribe here but I'm told it's important for us to share our experiences with the system as Virginia DMAS moves forward in making their decisions about how to proceed in compliance with the federal mandates and guidance.

Thank you so much for your patience.

Kim Williams