EVV glossary

8

837I

The institutional claim. Home health care services bill on it; Virginia's home health EVV rides there, with one service-location field rather than the 837P's two.

837P

The standard electronic professional claim (X12 837 Professional). Virginia carries its EVV data on the 837P's service lines; every state's personal-care billing uses it.

A

Aggregator

A state-contracted system that collects EVV visits from every provider's software (Sandata, HHAeXchange, CareBridge, Netsmart, Therap, AuthentiCare, Texas TMHP). Software must be certified with it before it can send. See the four state models.

Alternate EVV / Alt-EVV

Sandata's term for a provider's own EVV system sending into its aggregator, as opposed to Sandata's free app. The state's 'addendum' to the Alt-EVV spec lists that state's codes and ids.

Attendant ID

Virginia's term for the caregiver identifier on the claim (REF*LU). DMAS says explicitly not to use the SSN or FEIN.

Authorization number

The prior authorization a Medicaid visit is billed under. Several states (Washington, most aggregators) match visit units against it.

C

Cardinal Care

Virginia's Medicaid managed-care program. Its plans each take the 837P with the EVV loops; DMAS fee-for-service takes the same file.

CIN

New York's Client Identification Number: the eight-character Medicaid ID on a member's card, with a check digit eMedNY verifies on every EVV record.

Clock-in / clock-out

The two electronic captures that give a visit its begin and end time and location. 'Live' when the caregiver taps them; 'manual' when typed.

Cures Act

The 21st Century Cures Act (2016). Section 12006 is the EVV mandate. Explained here.

D

DMAS

Virginia's Department of Medical Assistance Services — the state Medicaid agency.

DMS coordinates

Degrees, minutes, seconds — the coordinate format Oregon's OHA template asks for instead of decimal degrees.

E

eMedNY

New York's Medicaid claims and EVV system. Its EVV Data API takes each visit from the provider's software directly.

EVV

Electronic Visit Verification: proving electronically that a home visit happened — who, whom, what, when, where. Required for Medicaid personal care and home health.

EVVMSID

HHAeXchange's identifier for a visit in its system. A provider's own id is sent with a leading '~' so a resend updates rather than duplicates.

G

GPS verification

Recording the phone's coordinates at clock-in and clock-out. Most states accept it as the 'location of service'; some compare it with the client's address.

H

HCPCS code

The procedure code a service bills under (T1019 personal care, S5150 respite, T1005 …), with modifiers. It is the 'type of service' element.

I

IVR / telephony

Clocking in and out by calling from the client's phone and keying a PIN. The caller ID stands in for GPS. Accepted everywhere; required as a fallback in some states.

L

Live-in caregiver

A caregiver who lives in the client's home. Several states exempted them from EVV; the exemptions are ending (Virginia: October 1, 2026).

M

Manual Claims Indicator

Washington's code on a ProviderOne line saying why a time was entered manually, from the EVV Systems Requirements Guide.

Manual entry

A visit time typed or corrected by a person rather than captured by a clock. Allowed as an exception with a reason code; the share of manual entries is watched.

O

Offline capture

A clock-in or clock-out taken on the phone with no signal and sent later, keeping the original time. Still an electronic capture for EVV.

P

Provider Choice model

A state that lets each agency pick its own EVV system rather than mandating one. Almost every state is one; the difference is what the state does with the data.

ProviderOne

Washington State's Medicaid management information system, where home care agencies submit social-service claims — the EVV fields ride on those claims.

R

Reason code

The state's code for why a visit was entered or corrected manually (forgot to clock, device failure, no signal, service in the community …). Each state has its own table; software maps a plain-English reason to it.

S

Sandata

The largest EVV aggregator company, now part of HHAeXchange. Its OpenEVV Alt-EVV REST interface is the format for DC, Vermont, Rhode Island, Indiana, Ohio and many more.

Sequence ID

Sandata's per-record version counter. Every resend of a visit increases it; a rejected send's number is never reused.

SSSOP ID

Washington's SS Servicing-Only ProviderOne ID: the individual caregiver's identifier, issued when the agency rosters them in ProviderOne, required on every EVV claim line.

U

UEVV

Utah Electronic Visit Verification: the state portal and CSV specification (v1.7) that Utah Medicaid takes EVV through.

Units

Billable quarter-hours. Most personal-care codes bill in 15-minute units with the 8-minute rounding rule; the EVV times decide the count.