Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

Ohio's Medicaid 'electronic verification' draws fire for glitches, privacy invasion

The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio is spending millions on new technology to log the visits of home-health workers and personal-care aides who make it possible for people with disabilities and other medical conditions to live and work in their communities.

But the first rollout of the state’s new “electronic visit-verification” system, part of a federal push to reduce Medicaid fraud, has drawn a firestorm of complaints about glitches, a lack of training and what many consumers see as a violation of their privacy.

The system uses repurposed, military-grade cellphones with GPS monitoring capability — devices that are supposed to stay with the Medicaid client whenever and wherever they receive services.

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