Enabling Technology for Human Services: Terms, States and Settings
Enabling technology is equipment or methods that help a person do more on their own, at home, at work and in the community. Any 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.
What is enabling technology?
TennCare defines enabling technology as “equipment or methodologies that support an individual’s increased independence in their home, community, and workplace.” Examples in its ET Protocol include motion sensors and bed or chair sensors. Missouri uses the idea of Technology First: considering technology before direct support professionals when planning a person’s supports.
Enabling technology is 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 remote support fit in?
Remote support is one kind of enabling technology. A person gets support from trained staff who are not in the room, through live, two-way technology, and someone comes in person when needed. With Vista Enterprise™ and VistaLink™, that trained team is the agency’s own. VistaLink™ uses non-wearable sensors and a display in the home, and it never acts alone.
No cameras are required in bedrooms, bathrooms or other personal spaces. The person and their team decide which devices are used and where.
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.
Can any agency get enabling technology?
Yes. Any provider agency can get Vista Enterprise™ the way it gets an EHR or payroll system, with no state approval. Billing is a separate question. It depends on the program, the service, the agency’s provider status, and each person’s plan. Each state page below walks through every place remote support fits in that state.
Which settings does it fit?
- Disability services. Group homes, supported living, ICFs and family homes. Remote support for IDD providers, HCBS and ICF/IID.
- Senior living. Assisted living communities and nursing homes, as the facility’s own tool alongside on-site staff. Remote support for senior living and nursing homes and assisted living.
- Aging in place and home care. Support between scheduled visits, with the person’s privacy kept. Remote support for aging in place and home care.
- Faith-based health. Church healing and health ministries, including churches that run home care or home health. Enabling technology for church healing and health ministries.
Technology raises quality even when every shift is covered. Read why full staff is not the ceiling.
How do states pay for it?
Every state pays in its own way. The funding map shows, state by state, where remote support lives in each program, how it is paid and who bills. Each state page goes deeper:
- 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 Minnesota
- 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
Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the terms used across these pages. Each term links to the source it comes from, checked October 25, 2026. State terms apply only in the state named.
Enabling technology
Equipment or methods that help a person do more on their own at home, in the community and at work. TennCare defines enabling technology (ET) as “equipment or methodologies that support an individual’s increased independence in their home, community, and workplace.” Source: TennCare ET Protocol, version dated February 1, 2026.
Technology First
A way of planning that looks at technology early. Missouri’s Division of Developmental Disabilities describes it as “the practice of considering the use of technology before direct support professionals.” Source: Missouri DMH Division of DD, Technology First.
Remote support
Support a person gets from trained staff who are not in the room, through live, two-way technology. Washington defines it as “supervision, coaching, and consultation from a contracted remote support provider to a waiver participant from a distant location.” Each state names and pays for it in its own way. Source: WAC 388-845-0945.
Home-Enabling Supports (HES)
New York’s name for a sub-component of the AT benefit in the OPWDD HCBS Waiver, added October 1, 2023. HES can include AT devices, Remote Supports, and Health Assessment and Coordination Services, for people enrolled in the waiver who live in non-certified settings. Source: OPWDD ADM 2024-02.
Community First Choice (CFC)
A Medicaid State Plan option, also known as 1915(k), that lets a state offer home and community-based attendant services and supports. In Colorado, CFC started July 1, 2025, and Remote Supports is a covered CFC benefit. Source: HCPF, Community First Choice.
Technology assisted residential services
A Kentucky SCL waiver residential service for three or fewer participants in a residence who reduce in-home staff support through technology, using real-time, two-way communication with remote staff employed to provide electronic support. Source: 907 KAR 12:010.
Teleservice
In Washington, a way to deliver certain waiver services, such as life skills or residential habilitation, from a distance through a secure system DDA approves, when the person chooses it and it is safe. It is a delivery method, not a separate service. Source: WAC 388-845-0113.
Backup support person
The person who responds, including in person, when help is needed. Colorado defines the Backup Support Person as the person who responds in an emergency, when the member otherwise needs help, or when the remote supports equipment stops working. It can be an unpaid family member or friend the member selects, or a paid agency provider. Source: 10 CCR 2505-10 section 8.7544.
Sensor
A device that lets the support team know something may need attention. Colorado’s rule describes a sensor as equipment used to notify the provider of a situation that requires attention, or activity that may show a change from routine. Source: 10 CCR 2505-10 section 8.7544.
Informed consent
Saying yes with the full picture. Washington DDA describes informed consent for remote support as agreeing to the technology based on an understanding of what the service is, what real-time audio and video involve, the risks and benefits, and the other options, including saying no. Source: DDA Policy 4.28.
Person-centered planning
Planning led by the person. Under federal HCBS rules, the individual leads the planning process, with their authorized representative if they have one, and the process includes people the individual chooses. Source: 42 CFR 441.301(c)(1).
Person-centered service plan
The written plan for a person’s services. Under federal HCBS rules, it reflects what the person needs and what is important to them, includes their goals, paid and unpaid supports, risks and backup plans, and is finalized with the person’s written informed consent. Source: 42 CFR 441.301(c)(2).
Natural supports
Help from family, friends and neighbors. Federal HCBS rules describe natural supports as unpaid supports that are provided voluntarily to the individual in place of waiver services and supports. Source: 42 CFR 441.301(c)(2)(v).
HCBS settings rule
Federal rules for where Medicaid home and community-based services happen. A setting must support full access to the community and protect the person’s privacy, dignity, respect and freedom from coercion and restraint. In provider-owned or controlled homes, each person has privacy in their sleeping or living unit, with a door they can lock. Source: 42 CFR 441.301(c)(4).
ICF/IID
An intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities. It is paid as a facility, not through a person’s waiver plan, and federal rules set its staffing floor, privacy and planning requirements. Under federal HCBS rules, an ICF/IID is not a home and community-based setting. Sources: 42 CFR 441.301(c)(5)(iii); 42 CFR 483.430.
Questions and answers
What is enabling technology?
Equipment or methods that help a person do more on their own at home, in the community and at work. TennCare defines it as “equipment or methodologies that support an individual’s increased independence in their home, community, and workplace.”
Is remote support the same as enabling technology?
Remote support is one kind of enabling technology: support from trained staff who are not in the room, through live, two-way technology. Each state names and pays for it in its own way, so check the state page for yours.
Does an agency need state approval to get enabling technology?
No. Any 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, and it follows each program’s rules.
Who responds when enabling technology is in place?
The agency’s own trained team responds and decides, following each person’s plan. VistaLink™ never acts alone.
Are cameras required for enabling technology?
No. No cameras are required in bedrooms, bathrooms or other personal spaces. The person and their team decide which devices are used and where.
Is enabling technology 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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