Arizona EVV Requirements 2026: A Guide for Home Care Agencies

Almost everywhere else on this site we tell agencies the same thing before anything else: check whether your state gives you an EVV system free, because many do, and if yours does you may not need to spend anything at all.

That advice does not hold in Arizona any more.

AHCCCS used to contract Sandata as both its EVV vendor and its aggregator, which meant Arizona providers had access to a state-funded system. That contract expired on 30 September 2025, and AHCCCS stated it would not re-solicit for an EVV vendor after it ended.

What AHCCCS built instead is an aggregator: the destination that receives visit records and matches them against claims. It runs that itself. What it no longer provides is the thing that captures a visit at a client's door.

So in Arizona, obtaining an EVV system is now a cost your agency carries. We would rather say that plainly than leave a page up that implies a free option still exists here.

The transition is usually described as EVV 2.0. Three things moved at once.

• AHCCCS became its own aggregator. Visit data that previously went to Sandata now goes directly to AHCCCS.
• The state-funded capture system went away. Sandata continues to exist as a commercial vendor you may contract with directly, but that is a paid arrangement rather than the previous state-funded one.
• Prior authorization data stopped being required in the EVV record. Claims validation itself continues.

For providers already using a vendor other than Sandata, AHCCCS said no action was needed, on one condition: the vendor had to have completed testing with AHCCCS. Their system then sends to AHCCCS rather than to Sandata.

For providers on the state-funded Sandata system, the choice was to sign a direct contract with Sandata or move to a different vendor before the cutoff.

There is a specific way this goes wrong, and it is worth understanding because it is silent while it is happening.

If your software or your capture method still points at Sandata, your caregivers are checking in normally. Visits are being logged. Nothing on a phone or in an office screen looks broken. What is not happening is the records reaching the AHCCCS aggregator.

You find out at billing. Claims arrive at AHCCCS with no matching EVV record and are denied or pended, and by then you may be several weeks of visits into the problem.

If you have not explicitly confirmed since October 2025 that your visit data is reaching AHCCCS, treat that as an open question rather than an assumption. Ask your vendor to show you that records are landing in the aggregator, not that they are being captured.

Arizona is an open vendor state, and more so than it was, because AHCCCS running its own aggregator means no single commercial system is favored by the state.

The condition that matters is testing. Vendors must complete testing with AHCCCS before submitting data directly to the state. When you evaluate any system for use in Arizona, that is the question to lead with, and the answer you want is specific rather than reassuring.

AHCCCS is explicit that it is on each provider using an alternate EVV system to ensure that vendor complies with AHCCCS business requirements and technical specifications. That responsibility does not transfer to the vendor because the vendor says it is compliant. Ask for confirmation in writing that they have completed AHCCCS testing, and ask when.

Two further questions worth asking any vendor here, given how the failure above works: how will you know if transmission stops, and what does the system show you when a record is rejected by the aggregator rather than merely captured.

Bringing the aggregator in house did not relax the underlying requirement. Claims validation, meaning matching EVV visits held in the aggregator against submitted claims, remains required.

What that means in practice is that an EVV record and a claim have to agree. A visit captured perfectly but never transmitted fails validation exactly as badly as a visit never captured, which is why the transmission question above matters more than the capture question.

The one requirement that was removed is prior authorization data, which is no longer required in the EVV record.

We are a software company writing about a state that now requires agencies to obtain software, so it is worth being direct about the conflict of interest rather than pretending it is not there.

Arizona agencies do now have to obtain an EVV system, and there is a real cost attached. That is a fact about the state, not an argument for any particular product, and it applies whether you choose a large platform, a small tool, a direct Sandata contract or something your existing software already includes.

Before evaluating anything, check whether you are already paying for it. Agencies frequently discover that their scheduling or billing system includes EVV capture, in which case the question is only whether that vendor has completed AHCCCS testing.

If you do need to compare options, our cost calculator puts quotes priced by caregiver, by client and by flat rate into the same terms. CareVerify is one option among many and we are not the designated system in Arizona or anywhere else.

This page covers the EVV 2.0 transition as it affects home care and home health agencies billing AHCCCS. It does not cover:

• The Arizona Long Term Care System and its program-specific rules, which are administered separately
• Division of Developmental Disabilities services, where the Department of Economic Security publishes its own EVV guidance
• Self-directed and consumer directed arrangements, where responsibilities split differently
• Individual health plan requirements, which sit on top of the state rules
• Billing rates, authorizations or licensure

AHCCCS maintains an EVV section covering the transition, vendor testing and provider requirements, including an EVV 2.0 frequently asked questions document. That material is the authoritative source and it is more current than any third-party summary, this page included.

For questions about a specific member, start with the health plan that member is enrolled in, since plans publish their own EVV guidance on top of the state rules.

If your services fall under the Division of Developmental Disabilities, the Department of Economic Security publishes separate EVV communications that apply to you.

Last reviewed 2 August 2026. Arizona changed its EVV arrangements substantially in 2025 and further guidance has followed, so this page carries a higher than usual risk of going out of date. Verify anything that affects a compliance or purchasing decision directly with AHCCCS before acting on it. CareVerify is not affiliated with AHCCCS or Sandata.