How to Start Remote Support: Two Paths
There are two ways to start. An existing agency adds remote support for the people who choose it, one plan at a time. A new group home plans its spaces, staffing and technology together before anyone moves in. Both start with the person, informed consent and a plan, and in both your agency’s own trained team responds and decides.
Which path is yours?
- Path 1: You run an agency today and want to offer remote support to the people who choose it.
- Path 2: You are opening a new group home and want technology in it from day one.
Either way, the goal follows the Provider Capacity-Building Model created by Precious “Preciosa” Myers-Brown, CEO and founder of Vista Supports: Stabilization, Capacity Building, Independence. Your agency builds the capacity, and your agency keeps the billing.
Path 1: An existing agency adds remote support
Step 1: Start with assessment and person-centered planning
Remote supports start with the person, not the device. A technology assessment looks at each person’s goals, routines, health needs, living space and what they want more control over. The findings go into the person-centered plan your state uses. The plan says which hours remote supports cover, what your remote support staff should be told about, and who is called, in what order, when someone needs help.
Step 2: Get informed consent and protect privacy
The person supported, and the people they trust, choose where devices go and whether they go in at all. The person, and their legal guardian or authorized representative when there is one, should understand what the technology does, who sees the information and how to say no. Some states, such as the District of Columbia, also require consent from others in the home whose privacy is affected. Choose devices that respect privacy, with no cameras required in bedrooms, bathrooms or other personal spaces, and write those choices into the plan. Consent is ongoing, not a one-time signature, so revisit it whenever the plan changes.
Step 3: Choose your remote support solution
Your agency buys a remote support solution the same way it buys an EHR, payroll or HR system, with no state approval. Look for non-wearable sensor options, one profile per person that holds the plan, room to choose devices for each person, and training and support for your team. Vista Enterprise™ annual cost is less than half the fully loaded annual cost of a single DSP.
Step 4: Staff your own remote support team
Someone trained has to respond to every event, every time. With Vista Enterprise™, which includes VistaLink™, your agency runs its own remote support, staffed by your own remote support professionals, sometimes called remote DSPs. Your agency’s own trained team responds and decides. Plan for in-person backup too: an on-call DSP or another person named in each plan.
Step 5: Train everyone involved
Remote support staff learn each person’s plan, how to check in as each plan sets out, how to follow the response plan step by step, and how to document. Direct support professionals (DSPs) learn how remote supports change their shifts and when they will be called in. People supported and families learn what the technology does and how to reach a person. Vista Enterprise™ includes workforce training.
Step 6: Go live with a small first group
Start with a small group of people whose plans are ready, whose devices are tested and whose backup contacts are confirmed. Review every event and response in the first weeks, adjust device placement and response steps, and then add more people. Vista stays on as your partner after go-live, not a one-time vendor.
Step 7: Set up billing under your state’s rules
Billing depends on where you operate. Some state waivers list remote supports as a service, with their own names, limits and provider rules, and some fund related technology under other names. Check your state’s current waiver documents, confirm your agency meets the provider rules to deliver and bill the service, and make sure each person’s plan authorizes it. Our funding map shows how each state on the map pays.
Path 2: A new group home built with technology from day one
Building with technology from day one is where Vista began. Founder Precious Myers-Brown led the creation of Washington, DC’s first smart home for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with Carl Hernandez and Steven Simms.
Step 1: Learn your state’s licensing and enrollment path
Before you choose a house, learn what your state requires to open and run a residential home: the license or certification, the provider enrollment steps for the waiver services you plan to offer, and the setting rules the home must meet. Your state’s licensing office and its developmental disabilities agency publish these rules.
Step 2: Check how your state pays for remote support in that setting
States treat residential settings differently. In Pennsylvania, remote supports are part of residential services and their rates. In Virginia, Electronic Home-Based Supports are not covered in group homes. In DC, Supported Living remote supports can be provided in homes of one, two or three people. Check the funding map and your state’s own documents before you plan staffing.
Step 3: Design the home around people and privacy
Plan the shared spaces and the private spaces with the people who will live there in mind. Technology goes only where each person agrees, with no cameras required in bedrooms or bathrooms. The federal home and community-based settings rule gives each person privacy in their own room, control of their schedule, and visitors, and any limit has to be written into the person’s plan with their consent.
Step 4: Plan in-person and remote support together
Write one staffing plan that shows which hours are in person, which hours remote support covers for the people whose plans allow it, and who comes in person when needed. Follow your state’s staffing rules for the setting. Enabling technology does not replace the DSP. It protects her. It never replaces the rules.
Step 5: Set up Vista Enterprise™ before the first person moves in
Get Vista Enterprise™ and train your remote support staff and DSPs before opening day, so the home starts with technology from the beginning rather than adding it later. Your agency’s own trained team responds and decides.
Step 6: Plan with each person as they choose the home
Each person who chooses to live in the home gets a technology assessment, a person-centered plan and informed consent of their own. Nobody’s plan is copied from a housemate’s, and each person can say no.
Step 7: Open, review and adjust
Review every event and response in the first weeks, adjust device placement and response steps, and update each plan as people settle in. Set up billing under your state’s rules for each service you deliver.
What stays the same on both paths
- The person chooses. Remote support is written into each person’s plan only with their informed consent.
- People decide. VistaLink™ never acts alone. Your agency’s own trained team responds and decides.
- Buying is not billing. Any agency can get Vista Enterprise™ with no state approval. Billing follows your state’s rules.
Questions agencies ask
What are remote support services?
Remote support services are support delivered by trained people from another location, using sensors and devices to know when someone may need help. A trained staff member on the agency’s own remote support team checks in, decides what is needed under the person’s plan, and calls in-person help such as an on-call direct support professional when someone needs to be there.
Does our agency need state approval to buy a remote support solution?
No. Your agency can get Vista Enterprise™ the same way it gets an EHR, payroll or HR system. State applications apply only to state procurement, state contracts or state-mandated programs. Delivering and billing a Medicaid service is a separate question that depends on your state’s provider rules and each person’s plan.
Who staffs the remote support?
Your agency does. With Vista Enterprise™, which includes VistaLink™, your own trained remote support staff respond to every event and make the decisions under each person’s plan. Vista provides workforce training and ongoing support to your agency. Your agency owns the service.
Where does person-centered planning fit in?
Person-centered planning comes first. Before any device is chosen, the person shares what they want, what they need and what they do not want, such as a device in a certain room. Those choices, the hours remote supports cover, and the response plan are written into the person’s plan, which the person leads with their support coordinator. Remote supports follow the plan, and the plan can change.
Can a new group home use technology from day one?
Yes. A new home can plan its spaces, staffing and remote support together before the first person moves in, as long as it follows the state’s licensing, setting and staffing rules and each person chooses the technology in their own plan.
Does remote support work in a fully staffed home?
Yes. Many agencies keep every in-person shift and still use remote support, because even a fully staffed overnight shift cannot be in every room at once. The technology gives trained staff better information. It adds to staffing rather than replacing it.
Book a demo
Walk through either path with our team, for your state and your settings.