Provider Choice vs Sandata Direct: Choosing Your Colorado EVV Path

Short answer: Colorado gives you two ways to meet EVV. The State EVV Solution is free, run by Sandata for HCPF, and built only to collect visits. A Provider Choice system is EVV you buy from a vendor, and it must send every visit to the same Sandata aggregator. The claim match at the end is identical. So the real question is where the rest of the visit lives, who fixes visits when they break, and how much setup you can take on.

Both paths end in the same place: HCPF's claims system has to find a verified visit for every EVV-required claim line. What differs is everything before that: the tools your caregivers use, where your office staff correct a missed clock-out, and what you pay. This guide puts the two side by side, using HCPF's own documentation, and ends with the questions that usually settle it.

Two paths, one claim match

HCPF calls Colorado's model a hybrid. The State EVV Solution is provided at no cost through Sandata Technologies. It uses three technologies: a mobile app with GPS at clock-in and clock-out, telephony for caregivers without a smartphone, and a provider web portal for visit maintenance and manual entries. A scheduling module is available but optional. The State Solution does not bill: claims still go to HCPF separately.

A Provider Choice system is a third-party EVV system the agency selects. HCPF's requirement is that it meets Colorado EVV rules and interfaces with the state's EVV data aggregator, which Sandata also runs. The provider is responsible for the accurate transmission of visit, member and caregiver data to that aggregator.

Whichever you choose, the destination does not change. Since February 1, 2022, every claim that requires EVV goes through a pre-payment review. A claim with no matching visit shows on the Remittance Advice as EOB 3054, "EVV Record Required and Not Found", and is denied. The match checks the billing provider's Medicaid ID, the member's Medicaid ID, the dates of service and the service grouping. Visits become available for matching the day after they are recorded and verified.

Side by side

Two rows in that table deserve a closer look, because they are where agencies feel the difference day to day.

Where a visit gets fixed. On the State Solution, office staff correct exceptions in Sandata's portal. On a Provider Choice system, the aggregator portal only shows your data: HCPF says information there "can only be updated by submitting new EVV information". Every correction happens in your own system and is transmitted again. One rule applies to both: if you change a visit after a claim line has already matched to it, you must void that claim and resubmit it.

Billing. HCPF describes the State Solution as built specifically to collect EVV records. If your schedule, progress notes, payroll hours and claims live in other tools, the same visit is recorded in more than one place, and someone keeps them in step. A Provider Choice system can hold all of that in one record, but only if the system you buy actually does it. Ask to see the claim line, not the brochure.

What Provider Choice asks of you

Choosing your own system moves work onto your side of the line. HCPF's steps, in order:

1. Confirm EVV enrollment and register in the Sandata Self-Registration Portal. Registration is required for every EVV provider on either path.
2. Interface testing. Sandata sets up a test account and sends your vendor a testing guide and checklist. The vendor sends test files and fixes errors until everything passes.
3. Go-live. You pick the date you start using the system, and Sandata issues production credentials.
4. Training. The program manual says training must be completed for both the State Solution and Provider Choice.

Two details save time. If your vendor is on HCPF's list of vendors already connected to Sandata in Colorado, you can skip interface testing and request production credentials. And a vendor new to Colorado needs a sponsoring Colorado provider before onboarding and testing can begin.

Department deadlines do not move while an interface is being built. HCPF's FAQ says agencies "must comply with all Department timelines, regardless of implementation progress with Provider Choice interfacing", and may use the State Solution until the interface is complete.

The rules also bind your vendor. HCPF does not accept biometric data, pictures, video or voice recordings to identify members or substantiate visits. It does not accept continual GPS tracking during a visit, only location at the start and end. And it does not use geo-fencing to restrict where service is delivered. A Provider Choice system must be set up so it cannot violate those restrictions. HCPF does not endorse or certify vendors beyond operability and successful data transmission, so checking this is your job.

The questions that decide it

How many systems does one visit touch today? Count them: scheduling, the EVV clock-in, the progress note, payroll, the claim. If the answer is one or two, the free State Solution may be all you need. If it is four or five, the cost of re-keying belongs in the comparison next to the subscription price.

Who will do visit maintenance, and how often? HCPF has no numeric threshold for manual or modified visits yet. It does say such edits should be the exception, that manual entries get increased scrutiny, and that persistently exceeding thresholds could lead to an audit. A system that catches a missing clock-out the same day makes that easier on either path.

How do your caregivers clock in? The State Solution covers smartphones and landlines. If you buy a system, check how it handles a member without a smartphone or a home without signal.

Is your vendor already connected in Colorado? It is the difference between requesting credentials and running an interface test cycle.

Do you serve CDASS members? Under CDASS, each Financial Management Services vendor uses its own Provider Choice system. A member changes EVV systems only by changing FMS vendors during the quarterly open enrollment periods. That choice is not the agency's.

Switching without a gap

The program manual is plain about it: an agency uses one system at a time, may move from the State Solution to Provider Choice whenever it is ready, and has no time limit on the State Solution. You must notify Sandata of the transition and complete the training. The FAQ adds that if a Provider Choice system stops working, the State Solution may be used.

A clean switch therefore looks like this. Keep the State Solution running while your vendor tests. Choose a go-live date that fits your billing cycle. After the first days, confirm in the aggregator portal that the new visits arrive and match before you stop using the old app. Do not edit matched visits during the changeover without voiding and resubmitting the claim.

Where OutcomeGrid fits

OutcomeGrid is built to be a Provider Choice system: the clock-in creates the visit, the note, the payroll hours and the claim line from one record, and it transmits to Colorado's aggregator. Our Colorado Provider Choice EVV page shows how transmission and rejected visits are handled. For the requirements themselves, start with our Colorado EVV requirements guide.

Sources: HCPF Electronic Visit Verification Overview, Solution Information, Program Manual (last updated July 1, 2026), Frequently Asked Questions (updated August 14, 2025) and Alternate Vendors (updated July 2, 2026) pages. This article is general information, not legal advice.