Facebook-f Linkedin
Client Portal

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

In July 2026, Delaware announced federal approval to add Remote Supports to its Lifespan Waiver. Any Delaware 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 Delaware agency buy a remote support solution?

Yes. Any Delaware 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 state, a managed care plan, 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 Delaware.

Where does remote support fit in Delaware?

Setting or programHow technology is usually paidWhat to know
Lifespan Waiver (intellectual and developmental disabilities)Remote Supports, per person, based on assessed needNew in 2026; see the state’s announcement
DSHP-Plus (older adults and people with physical disabilities)Personal emergency response through the managed care planPart of the person’s care plan
ICF/IIDThe facility’s own costFederal staffing floor stays
Nursing homes and assisted livingThe facility’s own costResident privacy rules apply
Home health and personal assistance agenciesThe agency’s own cost, or the person’s plan where it appliesSupport between visits
Any agency, any settingThe agency’s own budgetNo approval needed to buy

What did Delaware add to the Lifespan Waiver?

On July 28, 2026, the State of Delaware announced that its Division of Developmental Disabilities Services received final approval from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to add three services to the Lifespan Waiver: Enhanced Behavioral Residential Services, Crisis Stabilization Services, and Remote Supports.

  • Who can get it. Eligible people enrolled in the Lifespan Waiver, based on their assessed needs.
  • What it may include. Assessments, equipment, installation, training and ongoing monitoring.

For the service rules, provider requirements and billing, go by the state’s published waiver documents.

How does Delaware pay for remote support?

1. Remote Supports in the Lifespan Waiver, per person. Based on each person’s assessed needs, under the state’s rules for the service.

2. Personal emergency response for older adults. DSHP-Plus lists personal emergency response among its services.

3. 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 how ICFs, nursing homes, assisted living and home care agencies use it.

Sources, checked October 25, 2026: State of Delaware news release, July 28, 2026; Delaware Medicaid, DSHP-Plus.

What about older adults and people with physical disabilities in Delaware?

Remote support is not only for disability services. DSHP-Plus is Delaware’s managed care program for older adults and people with physical disabilities. It covers personal emergency response, along with services such as personal care, respite, assisted living and nursing facility care. Agencies that serve DSHP-Plus members can also get Vista Enterprise™ for their own team.

How do consent and privacy work in Delaware?

The person supported decides whether remote support is used and where devices go, with help from the people they choose. The person-centered plan is led by the person with their DDDS support coordinator. When the person has a legal guardian, that person takes part in consent. Consent is informed, voluntary and written down. The person can say no or change their mind at any time, and consent is revisited whenever the plan changes. The agency’s own trained team responds and decides, following the plan.

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 Delaware can keep every in-person shift and still use remote support, because technology raises 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 fills 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, and 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.
  • In Delaware, Remote Supports is a Lifespan Waiver service, 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 Delaware 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 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. 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. Residents live in their own units, with their own rights to privacy and choice. Technology placed with each resident’s consent gives staff better information between scheduled visits.
  • In Delaware, nursing homes are licensed under 16 Del. Admin. Code 3201 and assisted living under 16 Del. Admin. Code 3225.

How does remote support help home care agencies in Delaware?

Home care agencies send aides into people’s homes for set hours. Between visits, no one is there. Remote support fills that gap: the person keeps their privacy, and the agency’s own trained team can see 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 Delaware, home health agencies and personal assistance services agencies are licensed by the Division of Health Care Quality (DHCQ regulations). For DSHP-Plus members, the agency can also look at whether personal emergency response belongs in the person’s plan.

Who else can remote support help in Delaware?

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 Delaware’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 Delaware’s rules for the service it bills, or the rules for its license if it bills nothing. For the Lifespan Waiver, that means the state’s published rules for Remote Supports.

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

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

An assisted living community in Kent County keeps its full overnight staff and gets Vista Enterprise™ for its own team. With each resident’s consent, non-wearable sensors go in residents’ units. Overnight staff get an event when a resident who usually sleeps through the night is up and about, and they decide who should check in, so other residents are not woken by rounds.

Questions and answers

Can any Delaware agency buy a remote support solution?

Yes. Any Delaware provider or agency can get Vista Enterprise™, which includes VistaLink™. Like an EHR, it needs no state or managed care approval. Billing follows each program’s rules.

Does Delaware cover remote supports?

Yes. In July 2026, Delaware announced final federal approval to add Remote Supports to the Lifespan Waiver for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Who can get Remote Supports in Delaware?

Eligible people enrolled in the Lifespan Waiver can get the service based on their assessed needs. The service rules are set by the state.

What can Delaware’s Remote Supports include?

According to the state, it may include assessments, equipment, installation, training and ongoing monitoring.

What does Delaware cover for older adults?

DSHP-Plus, Delaware’s managed care program for older adults and people with physical disabilities, lists personal emergency response among its services.

Can a Delaware 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, no cameras are required in bedrooms or bathrooms, and the facility pays for Vista Enterprise™ as its own cost.

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 Delaware 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.

Book a demo

See how your Delaware agency could run its own remote support with Vista Enterprise™ and VistaLink™.

Book a demo

Related pages