How Sandata EVV works for home care agencies
16 states and DC use Sandata as their EVV aggregator. What the aggregator requires is the same in all of them - here it is once, with a link to each state's own rules.
17 jurisdictions route Medicaid EVV through Sandata (OpenEVV Alt-EVV): California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin. In each of them an agency can use the state's own Sandata tools or its own EVV system, and an agency's own system has to deliver its visits to Sandata in the aggregator's format. This page covers what is the same in every Sandata state. Each state's page covers what is different there - its programs, its dates and its extra rules.
One aggregator: Sandata's OpenEVV interface
Three endpoints, one order
Clients, then employees, then visits, each posted as JSON and polled to completion before the next — the appendix's own rule. The software does exactly that, and reads each record's verdict back into the visit.
Certified once per state
A vendor registers with Sandata, receives UAT credentials under a sponsoring provider in the state, passes the interface test, and is then on file for every later agency in that state.
The addendum decides the codes
Which identifier a caregiver is known by (SSN or a custom ID), which the client is, the payer and program IDs, the reason-code table and the ID formats all come from the state's addendum — and live on the account, not in code.
What Sandata wants, and where the app gets it
Every element Sandata names, the record it comes from in the app, and where it lands. The format is the OpenEVV Alt-EVV REST (v7.x) + the state addendum; each state adds its own addendum on top.
| Element | Where the app gets it | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| Client record | Medicaid ID as the addendum spells it, name, home address with coordinates | clients endpoint |
| Employee record | Caregiver by SSN or custom ID per the addendum; position; NPI where the state asks | employees endpoint |
| Visit record | VisitOtherID, PayerID / PayerProgram, HCPCS + up to four modifiers, UTC times | visits endpoint |
| Calls | Mobile with latitude/longitude, or Telephony with the originating phone | Calls[] |
| Manual or corrected visit | VisitChanges with the program's ReasonCode and a memo | VisitChanges[] |
| Sequence | A timestamp SequenceID that only ever rises, so a resend is an update | SequenceID |
| Verdict | Status polled by transaction id; per-record errors read back to the visit | /status?uuid= |
Getting started in a Sandata state
- Sponsor and credentials. Your agency is the sponsoring provider: one attestation to the state and one to the aggregator, and the aggregator issues test credentials. We prepare both with you.
- Configure from the preset. Finance → EVV aggregators: the state's preset fills qualifiers, reason codes and config from the published addendum; the issued ids and credentials go on top. The account says Ready when nothing is missing.
- Certify. We run the aggregator's test cases against their test environment with your test patients, fix anything they flag, and ask for their review. Then production credentials.
- Go live. Flip the account to production and turn the worker on. From then on every closed Medicaid visit is queued at clock-out and reaches the aggregator within minutes, with its verdict read back.
Status: the Sandata connector is built to the published specification and tested against it. Certification is completed state by state, with the first agency in that state as sponsoring provider, before any production visit is sent.
Questions about Sandata EVV
Do our caregivers have to use Sandata's app?
No. Sandata's app is the state's free option; an agency with its own system sends visits into the same aggregator through the Alt-EVV interface. Caregivers use one app — this one — and the state gets the same data.
What does the certification involve?
Sandata issues UAT credentials under a sponsoring provider in the state, we send clients, employees and visits to their test environment, work through their checklist, and they confirm. We do this with your agency as the sponsor, at no cost to you; the software is already built and tested against the published specification.
What if the state changes its reason codes or payer IDs?
Those are settings on the aggregator account, not code. When an addendum is revised the account is updated and the next send carries the new values.
Can we start before the certification is done?
Yes. Scheduling, documents, billing and the caregiver app work from day one, and every Medicaid visit is captured with GPS and coded reasons. Visits queue for the aggregator and go the day the account is live — nothing is re-entered.
See how your state's EVV comes out of a real visit.
Twenty minutes on a screen-share, end to end, in your state's format. No obligation.