What is electronic visit verification (EVV)?
Electronic visit verification is the electronic capture of who delivered a service, to whom, what service, where, and when it began and ended - required by many Medicaid programs for services delivered in the home.
EVV grew out of federal Medicaid legislation - the 21st Century Cures Act - directing states to require electronic verification for certain home-delivered services. The mandate's logic is program integrity: services billed to Medicaid as delivered in the home should carry electronic evidence that the visit actually happened as claimed.
The verified elements are consistent across programs: the type of service performed, the individual receiving it, the individual delivering it, the date, the location, and the start and end times. Capture typically happens through a mobile check-in at arrival and check-out at departure, with the system recording the time and location.
Whether EVV touches an ABA practice depends on payor and setting. Home-based sessions funded by Medicaid programs are where requirements most often apply, and states differ meaningfully - in which services are covered, which systems must be used, and whether providers may integrate their own platforms with the state's aggregator - so the practice's obligations are defined by each state program it bills.
Operationally, EVV rides on the same behaviors as good session documentation: therapists confirming arrival and departure in the moment rather than reconstructing times later. Missed check-ins become exceptions requiring manual attestation, and excessive exceptions draw exactly the scrutiny EVV exists to apply.
For practices in EVV states, the compliance chain runs from the therapist's check-in through the practice's systems to the state's aggregator, and claims that lack matching visit verification can be denied - which puts EVV squarely inside the revenue cycle, not beside it.