The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services will be kicking off another one of their statewide "stakeholder meetings" this time on Electronic Visit Verification (EVV). EVV is even more egregious than the recent PCA Overtime battle.

EVV assumes that the PCA and the member employer will have to relinquish privacy rights during the time that the PCA works. EOHHS is planning to implement EVV sometime in the fall. We must use these statewide meetings to send a message; you have no right to geo-track me while I'm performing my everyday activities of daily living.

This is precisely what they plan to do and if we don't oppose it early on, we’ll have to live with an invasive system that violates our right to privacy.

It's perfectly reasonable and expected to track the hours worked by a PCA for a consumer which is currently the practice. It's old and paper driven system should be updated to capture the information needed with an EVV system that tracks time in and time out and not Geo tracking locations.

The PCA member employer certifies that the hours their PCAs work are accurate and true. This has been the practice pretty much since the program began in 1974. It's been successful and has grown the program to its present level but EVV is more about fraud, waste, and abuse.

The larger problem and, most likely, legal, challenge lies in the right to privacy and how the proposed system assumes that member employers and PCAs are committing fraud and must be geo-tracked to prove it.

We can't be placed under house arrest for committing no crime.

Onward!