02/18/20 Charlie Carr blog: 

"In the waning days of the 2016 legislative year, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act that represented a significant investment in improving access and availability of mental health services nationally.  Included in this legislation was a last minute addition titled Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) in Section 12006.  It's largely believed that this addition that required a "pay for" was driven by the EVV vendor lobby; principally Sandata corporation.  Section 12006 requires states that have personal care services programs to additionally report the type of service performed; individual receiving the service; date of the service; location of service delivery; individual providing the services, and time the service begins and ends.  This requirement is, at the very least, a burden on every Medicaid agency in the country.  Why would this invasive reporting requirement completely unrelated to mental health services be included in the law?  Ultimately it was because a few large healthcare corporations knew they could make a lot of money by requiring state Medicaid agencies to report this new information and companies like Sandata and Optum had the software and training available to implement it albeit for a hefty price."