Delaying Reduction in Federal Medical Assistance Percentage for Certain Medicaid Personal Care Services

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Representatives Guthrie and Langevin for working with me on this very important bill, which addresses a national health care issue involving safety, efficiency and privacy affecting many of our constituents.

As most people who have been engaged in this matter know, the mental health portion of the 21st Century Cures Act--the overwhelmingly bipartisan biomedical reform bill that was signed into law in December 2016--included what is called electronic visit verification (EVV) provisions. These provisions require states to verify the provider, date, time and site of personal care and home health services.

They were meant to give patients the power to hold their providers accountable for delivering services when and where they are supposed to do so.

But given the delay by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in getting guidance for implementation of the provisions to the states, and the way the agency ignored Congressional intent to involve stakeholders in the regulatory process, House members had to step in to try and right what the Executive Branch has done poorly in the past year and a half.

The bill before you today grants a one-year delay in implementation of the EVV requirements. It also requires CMS to involve stakeholders both in the planning and throughout the implementation of the EVV requirements to ensure that the privacy and civil rights of consumers are protected.

This bill ensures that administrative and financial burdens on service providers are neither onerous nor duplicative and that states are able to design and implement their EVV programs in a thoughtful, deliberative manner. It also affords CMS the opportunity to hear from beneficiaries enrolled in self-directed plans about the challenges EVV could present for them.

This legislation will also help foster a comprehensive and transparent process that carefully balances the serious privacy concerns of consumers and caregivers, the administrative and financial concerns of providers and states, and EVV's goals of patient control and fraud prevention.

Mr. Speaker, if properly implemented EVV has potential to ensure that high-quality services are delivered when and where needed, while also reducing the potential for waste and fraud. This legislation will require CMS to follow a proper stakeholder engagement process, in order to ensure that the policy is implemented correctly. It will also allow each state greater opportunity to ensure that its EVV programs are best suited to individuals' specific needs.

I strongly urge all members to support this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source