Remote Support in Minnesota: Every Service It Fits, and How It Is Paid

Minn. Stat. 245D.261 lets a license holder use remote overnight supervision in a community residential setting, instead of on-site direct support staff. Any Minnesota provider agency can get Vista Enterprise™, the remote support solution, the way it gets an EHR or payroll system, with no state approval. Billing is separate. The agency’s own trained team responds and decides.

Can any Minnesota agency buy a remote support solution?

Yes. Any Minnesota provider or agency can get Vista Enterprise™, the remote support solution, which includes VistaLink™, the technology. Like an EHR or payroll system, getting it needs no approval from the Department of Human Services (DHS), a county or tribal nation, a managed care organization, or anyone else.

Billing is a separate question. It depends on the program, the service, your agency’s provider status, and each person’s plan. The rest of this page walks through every place remote support fits in Minnesota.

Where does remote support fit in Minnesota?

Setting or program	How technology is usually paid	What to know
BI, CAC, CADI and DD waivers	The covered service, at the same rate in person or remote	Remote support is a way to deliver the service, set in the support plan
Elderly Waiver, Alternative Care and Essential Community Supports	The covered service, at the same rate in person or remote	Includes adult day services, family caregiver services, homemaker (home management) and other listed services
The technology itself	Bought through another waiver service, such as environmental accessibility adaptations for sensors, or the provider’s own budget for shared equipment	Remote support does not fund the technology
Licensed community residential settings at night	The licensed residential service; equipment the person cannot take with them when they move is a provider expense	Remote overnight supervision under Minn. Stat. 245D.261
ICF/IID	The facility’s own cost	Federal staffing floor stays
Nursing homes and assisted living	The facility’s own cost	Resident privacy rules apply
Home care agencies	The agency’s own cost, or the person’s waiver where it applies	Support between visits
Any agency, any setting	The agency’s own budget	No approval needed to buy

What is remote support under Minnesota’s waiver policy?

Minnesota’s Community-Based Services Manual says remote support is not a service. It is a method used to deliver an allowable service, by a staff member or caregiver at a remote location who engages with the person through enabling technology that uses live, two-way communication. Under the policy:

• The person chooses it. Remote support is covered when the person, or their guardian if they have one, chooses and prefers it, when it meets the person’s assessed needs, when it is part of the service being delivered, and when it follows the support plan.
• It is live. Emails, faxes and voicemails do not count, and neither does any time when real-time, two-way communication does not happen, such as an internet outage.
• In-person support stays. The support plan names the needs that must be met in person, and remote support does not replace in-person support that is a core part of the service. A person in residential or day services does not receive in-person and remote support at the same time.
• The person can stop it. The person has the right to refuse, stop or suspend the use of remote support at any time.

What does Minnesota law say about remote overnight supervision?

Minn. Stat. 245D.261 lets a license holder provide remote overnight supervision in a community residential setting in place of on-site direct support staff. The setting must use technology, such as enabling technology capable of live two-way communication between a resident and direct support staff at a remote location. Under the statute:

• The commissioner is notified. The license holder tells the commissioner the start date and attests that the requirements are met. The commissioner then notifies the county licensing agency and updates the license.
• Each support plan addendum says so. It states that the setting has no in-person overnight direct support, includes the license holder’s protocols for serious risks to health, safety or rights, and records the maximum permissible response time, which the person’s support team sets for that person. Vista does not set or promise these times.
• Policies are in place to protect residents’ health, safety and rights, explain the discharge process, cover backup for power outages and equipment problems, train staff on the technology, and set a plan for sending emergency responders in an emergency. If no physical presence response is completed for three months, the license holder conducts a physical presence response drill and reviews how well its protocol worked.
• Consent is signed. When the setting uses monitoring technology to supervise residents remotely, each resident or their legal representative signs an informed consent form agreeing to the specific technology used. The form explains how it is used, its risks and benefits, and how each resident’s privacy is protected, including when the system records information that identifies a person. A person already receiving in-person services cannot lose services solely because they decline consent to the initial change. If a resident later revokes their consent, the resident may be subject to a service termination under Minn. Stat. 245D.10, subd. 3a.

What has to happen before remote support starts in Minnesota?

1. The person chooses remote support as the way they want a service delivered, with their guardian if they have one.
2. The support plan sets the details: the person’s assessed needs and goals remote support can meet; how it supports the person to live and work in the most integrated community settings; the needs that must be met in person; how remote support will not replace in-person support that is a core part of the service; the plan for in-person and remote support, based on the person’s needs, for their health and safety; whether the person or their guardian agrees to the use of cameras for service delivery; and the amount, frequency and duration of remote support use.
3. When the technology is monitoring technology as defined in DHS’s Monitoring technology usage policy (equipment used to monitor and supervise someone who receives waiver or AC services), the lead agency also follows the Minnesota DHS Monitoring technology usage policy: the lead agency approves it, the case manager works with the person and their team, the person (and any roommate whose information the technology could capture) gives informed consent on the state forms (DHS-6789B, Participant Consent for Use of Monitoring Technology, and DHS-6789C, Affected Participant Consent for the Use of Monitoring Technology), the support plan explains how it meets the person’s needs, and the lead agency reviews it at least once a year.
4. The service is authorized. Many services need separate authorization lines for in-person and remote support, and people on the Elderly Waiver through a managed care organization get authorization instructions from that organization.
5. For overnight supervision in a licensed residential setting, the license holder also meets Minn. Stat. 245D.261: notice to the commissioner, the support plan addendum, the required policies and, where the statute requires it, signed consent.

How does Minnesota pay for remote support?

From the agency’s own budget. Any agency can get Vista Enterprise™ as its own remote support solution, whether or not it bills a service. This is the route for ICFs, nursing homes, assisted living and home care agencies.

Your agency gets Vista Enterprise™ directly, as its own remote support solution. Minnesota then has three ways to pay for the enabling technology a person uses:

1. The service, at the same rate. Units of the approved service are paid at the same rate whether they are provided in person or remotely, and remote support rates follow the rate-setting rules of the service. The person can use remote support flexibly as part of their yearly authorized amount or budget.

2. The technology, through another service. Remote support does not fund the enabling technology. Which service pays depends on what the technology does. On the BI, CAC, CADI and DD waivers, technology or equipment that monitors the person in real time, such as sensors, is authorized through environmental accessibility adaptations; technology the person uses on their own goes through AT (DD) or specialized equipment and supplies (BI, CAC, CADI). For people using CDCS, the CDCS home modifications category can cover monitoring technology, such as sensors, following the Minnesota DHS Monitoring technology usage policy; on BI, CAC, CADI and DD, a first amount each year comes from the person’s CDCS budget, and the lead agency may approve more from its waiver allocation. If the person cannot take the equipment with them when they move, the equipment is a provider expense. Waivers, Alternative Care and Essential Community Supports do not cover the cost of utilities, including phone service.

3. Overnight, inside the licensed residential service. A community residential setting that uses remote overnight supervision under Minn. Stat. 245D.261 does so as part of its licensed service.

Sources, checked October 25, 2026: Minnesota DHS Community-Based Services Manual, Remote support (updated January 15, 2026); Minn. Stat. 245D.261, remote overnight supervision; Minn. Stat. 245D.02, definitions; Minn. Stat. 256B.49, support plans; Minnesota DHS, CBSM – Monitoring technology usage (page updated January 9, 2018); Minnesota DHS, Guidance on support technology and service planning, October 13, 2023; Minnesota DHS CDCS Manual, Environmental modifications, home modifications, updated September 1, 2026.

What about older adults in Minnesota?

Remote support is not only for disability services. For people on the Elderly Waiver (EW) and Alternative Care (AC), the remote support policy lists adult day services, adult companion services, CDCS, family caregiver services, homemaker (home management), individual community living supports (ICLS), in-home respite and transitional services. ICLS still includes at least one face-to-face, in-person support scheduled each week.

How do consent and privacy work in Minnesota?

The person supported decides whether remote support is used and where devices go, with help from the people they choose. The support plan is person-centered and led by the person with their case manager and support team. When the person has a legal guardian or legal representative, that person takes part in consent. Consent is informed, voluntary and written down. The support plan records whether the person or their guardian agrees to any use of cameras, and when a community residential setting uses monitoring technology to supervise residents overnight, each resident or their legal representative signs an informed consent form. The person can refuse, stop or suspend remote support, or withdraw consent, at any time, and consent is revisited whenever the plan changes. The agency’s own trained team responds and decides, following the plan.

In Minnesota, use of cameras in bathrooms is prohibited, and DHS approval is required for cameras in bedrooms except when they are used solely to provide remote support. No cameras are required in bedrooms, bathrooms or other personal spaces.

What if our staffing stays the same, as in an ICF or a fully staffed group home?

An agency in Minnesota can keep every in-person shift and still use remote support, because technology can raise quality even with full staff.

Even a fully staffed overnight shift cannot be in every room at once, stay fully alert through every hour of the night, or carry every detail from one shift to the next. When nothing answers those human limits, they quietly become limits on the outcomes people supported can reach. That is a limit of people, not a failing of staff.

Enabling technology for human services helps with those gaps without replacing anyone. It gives trained people better information and more of their time for the moments that need a person in the room.

• Fewer night checks that wake people up. For people whose plans do not call for hands-on checks through the night, a door opening on a schedule interrupts sleep and privacy. Non-wearable sensors the person agreed to can let overnight staff know when something may need a person. Whether a plan moves away from scheduled checks is decided through the person’s plan, by the person and their team, with input from the agency’s own nurse or clinician.
• Better information. Plain-language daily reports on sleep, activity and safety events give nurses and the team a fuller picture than a shift note alone.
• Closing gaps in data and judgment. A steady record across shifts means handoffs rest on more than memory, and a change that is hard to read in the middle of the night comes to a trained person with the facts in front of them.

Know the limits.

• Federal ICF rules set the staffing floor. In an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ICF/IID), federal rules require responsible direct care staff on duty around the clock when people are present, awake in some living units, plus minimum direct care staff ratios. Remote support adds to on-site staff. It does not replace them.
• Privacy comes first. Federal rules require ICFs to give each person the opportunity for personal privacy. CMS guidance for surveyors says video or audio never takes the place of staff. No cameras are required in bedrooms, bathrooms or other personal spaces. Non-wearable sensors fit that approach.
• The facility pays. An ICF/IID is paid as a facility, not through a person’s waiver plan, so an ICF that uses Vista Enterprise™ pays for it as its own operating cost.
• ICF terms apply. In an ICF/IID, the person’s plan is the Individual Program Plan (IPP), developed by an interdisciplinary team that includes the person and the qualified intellectual disability professional (QIDP). A move away from scheduled night checks is decided by that team, including the person and their legal guardian where they have one, with input from the facility’s own nurse, and written into the IPP. If the change could affect the person’s protection or rights, the facility’s specially constituted committee reviews it, and it goes ahead only with written informed consent from the client, their legal guardian, or a parent if the client is a minor.
• In Minnesota, remote support is a way to deliver waiver services, so an ICF does not bill it.
• Group homes and privacy. Federal home and community-based settings rules give each person privacy in their sleeping or living unit. Any limit on that must be based on a specific assessed need, written into the person’s plan, and agreed to with informed consent.

Can nursing homes and assisted living in Minnesota use remote support?

Yes. Nursing homes and assisted living communities get Vista Enterprise™ the same way any agency does, and the facility’s own trained team responds and decides.

• Nursing homes. Federal rules give each resident a right to personal privacy and to be free from restraints that are not needed to treat medical symptoms, and require the facility to give each resident adequate supervision and assistance devices to prevent accidents. Better information can help staff see who needs them without waking everyone. Each resident decides whether devices go in and can say no, and a resident representative decides for the resident only as far as the resident, a court or state law gives them that role. CMS guidance for surveyors treats devices that alert staff when a resident moves as position change alarms, so the facility’s care team checks, in each care plan, that a device does not keep a resident from moving freely or disturb their sleep. Remote support does not prevent falls, and it is not a promise that every fall will be noticed. A trained person on the facility’s own team decides each step. Nursing homes are paid as facilities, so Vista Enterprise™ is the facility’s own purchase. In-person staffing rules do not change.
• Assisted living. Assisted living is licensed by each state, not under the federal nursing home rules, so each community follows its own state’s licensing rules for resident rights, privacy and consent. Where Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) pay for a resident’s services there, the federal HCBS settings rules also apply, including privacy in the person’s sleeping or living unit, a door they can lock, and a say in choosing any roommate. Technology placed with each resident’s consent gives staff better information between scheduled visits.
• In Minnesota, nursing homes and assisted living communities follow the state’s own licensing rules alongside the federal ones.

How does remote support help home care agencies in Minnesota?

Home care agencies send aides into people’s homes for set hours. Between visits, no one from the agency is there. Remote support helps with that gap: the person keeps their privacy, and the agency’s own trained team can learn when something may need attention and decide who should go.

• Better visits. Aides arrive knowing how the night went.
• Earlier notice. Changes in routine can show up before they become a crisis.
• In Minnesota, remote support can deliver waiver services such as homemaker (home management), in-home respite and individualized home supports, and in-person support stays part of each service.

Who else can remote support help in Minnesota?

It is not all about disability. Remote support is enabling technology for human services as a whole. It works for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), older adults, people with physical disabilities, people recovering from an illness or injury, faith-based organizations that run health ministries, and the staff and families who support them.

How does VistaLink™ fit Minnesota’s rules?

VistaLink™ uses non-wearable sensors and a display in the home to send events to your agency’s own trained team, and it never acts alone. The agency’s own trained team responds and decides, following each person’s plan.

Your agency stays the provider. It confirms that its full setup meets Minnesota’s rules for the service it bills, or the rules for its license if it bills nothing. For waiver services, that includes the support plan and service authorization. For overnight supervision in a licensed residential setting, it includes every requirement of Minn. Stat. 245D.261.

Vista is not the direct service provider. The agency or facility is. Vista Enterprise™ supports the people who plan and give support: the person, their family or guardian where they have one, the provider’s own team, and any case manager or coordinator. It helps them follow the rights, privacy and consent rules that apply in that setting and state, and build each person’s plan around their own wants and needs. The agency’s own trained team responds and decides.

For states and government agencies

Vista can also work with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), counties and tribal nations, and with other state and government agencies, for example through a procurement or a contract. Any single agency, in any state or anywhere in the world, can already get Vista Enterprise™ with no state approval.

Remote support for states and government agencies

What does remote support look like for a Minnesota agency? (composite example)

This is a composite example built from common situations. It is not a real person.

A man on the CADI Waiver lives in his own apartment and gets individualized home supports. He chooses to have some of those hours delivered remotely, and he and his case manager write into his support plan which needs still call for in-person visits and how much remote support he uses. His lead agency authorizes non-wearable sensors and a display in the home through his waiver’s environmental accessibility adaptations service, after he gives informed consent. When he asks for help, a trained staff member at his agency talks with him live, and sends someone in person when his plan says to.

Questions and answers

Can any Minnesota agency buy a remote support solution?

Yes. Any Minnesota provider or agency can get Vista Enterprise™, which includes VistaLink™. Like an EHR, it needs no approval from DHS, a county, a tribal nation or a managed care organization. Billing follows each program’s rules.

Is remote support a separate service in Minnesota?

No. Remote support is a method used to deliver an allowable service, such as individualized home supports or homemaker (home management), in the BI, CAC, CADI, DD and Elderly waivers, Alternative Care and Essential Community Supports.

How is remote support paid in Minnesota?

Units of the approved service are paid at the same rate whether they are provided in person or remotely. The technology itself is bought through another waiver service, such as environmental accessibility adaptations for sensors, or the provider’s own budget for shared equipment.

Can a Minnesota residential setting use technology overnight?

Yes. Under Minn. Stat. 245D.261, a license holder can provide remote overnight supervision in a community residential setting in place of on-site direct support staff, after it notifies the commissioner and meets the statute’s documentation, policy and consent requirements.

What has to be in a Minnesota support plan for remote support?

All of the following: the person’s assessed needs and goals remote support can meet; how it supports the person to live and work in the most integrated community settings; the needs that must be met in person; how remote support will not replace in-person support that is a core part of the service; the plan for in-person and remote support, based on the person’s needs, for their health and safety; whether the person or their guardian agrees to the use of cameras for service delivery; and the amount, frequency and duration of remote support use.

Can a person in Minnesota stop remote support?

Yes. The person has the right to refuse, stop or suspend the use of remote support at any time.

Can a Minnesota ICF, nursing home or assisted living facility use remote support?

Yes, as its own tool alongside on-site staff. Federal and state staffing rules still apply in full, and the facility pays for Vista Enterprise™ as its own cost. No cameras are required in bedrooms, bathrooms or other personal spaces.

Who responds when remote support is in place?

Your agency’s own trained team responds and decides, following each person’s plan. VistaLink™ never acts alone.

Is remote support in Minnesota only for disability services?

No. It fits any human service where staff cannot be everywhere at once: disability services, older adults, assisted living, nursing homes, home care and faith-based health ministries.

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Related pages

• Enabling technology for human services: a remote support solution for any agency
• How states pay for remote support
• Vista Enterprise™
• VistaLink™
• Remote support in the District of Columbia
• Remote support in Maryland
• Remote support in Pennsylvania
• Remote support in Virginia
• Remote support in New Jersey
• Remote support in Delaware
• Remote support in Ohio
• Remote support in Tennessee
• Remote support in Missouri
• Remote support in Indiana
• Remote support in Wisconsin
• Remote support in New York
• Remote support in Colorado
• Remote support in Kentucky
• Remote support in Washington
• How to start remote support
• Family guide to choice and consent
• Remote supports FAQ
• Enabling technology: terms, states and settings