Remote support technology, planned around the person.
Remote support can help a person live with more independence and privacy while the right people stay informed. Gray Matters Alliance helps individuals, families, and organizations plan, configure, and support remote-support technology that fits real life.
Start Your JourneyWhat is remote support technology?
Remote-support systems may use communication tools, sensors, environmental technology, caregiver tools, and alerts to support a person without requiring someone to be physically present every moment. In Medicaid waiver programs, this service is often called remote supports.
Remote support should be individualized and implemented with appropriate authorization, privacy, planning, staffing, and response procedures. It is not one-size-fits-all, and it is not about replacing people.
When remote support may be worth exploring
- Greater independence is already one of the person’s goals
- Support is needed, but continuous physical presence may not be
- Caregivers need better awareness, not more alerts
- The person uses several technologies that don’t work together
- The current support model is holding independence back
Read more: 5 signs it may be time for remote support.
What good remote support looks like
Meaningful alerts
Fewer, more meaningful notifications, routed to the people responsible for responding.
Responders who know the person
Where possible, the people who respond are the people who already know the person.
Privacy and permissions
Each caregiver and organization sees only what their role requires.
Human judgment stays central
Technology supports awareness. People remain responsible for decisions and response.
One option: the GMA MyCompass System
For many remote-support situations, GMA offers the GMA MyCompass System: one coordinated system with three experiences. MyCompass is the person-facing experience. CompassCare serves families and caregivers. CompassCare Command Center serves organizations and professional caregivers. Nora Caregiver Intelligence works across them to organize context for the people providing support.
MyCompass is recommended only when it genuinely fits. Other remote-support and enabling technologies may be the better answer. Compare the three experiences.
Your team stays in charge of response
GMA provides the technology, implementation, configuration, training, and ongoing support. GMA does not operate a call center. Families and organizations use their own caregivers and staff, and an operating organization remains responsible for its staffing, supervision, policies, and response operations.
What a remote-support plan considers
- The person’s goals and preferences
- The routines and times of day when support matters most
- Who should be informed, and about what
- Response procedures and backup plans
- Connectivity, power, and what happens if either fails
- Privacy, consent, and authorization
- Training for everyone involved
- How and when the plan will be reviewed
Some Medicaid waiver programs include remote supports, but definitions and requirements vary by program and state. Funding, eligibility, approved services, and geographic availability vary by program, payer, state, and individual circumstances. GMA can help you understand possible pathways, but cannot guarantee coverage or approval.
Common questions
Does remote support replace caregivers or direct support professionals?
No. Remote support is intended to support people and the people around them. In some situations it may allow support to be provided differently, but required staffing, supervision, professional care, emergency response, and human judgment remain important where they are needed.
Does remote support mean monitoring someone all the time?
No. When awareness technology is used, the amount of information collected and who can access it should be appropriate to the person’s needs, authorization, privacy, and support plan.
Can remote support work in rural communities?
Yes, where it can be responsibly implemented. Rural settings may need additional planning around connectivity, installation, local resources, caregiver availability, and emergency response.
Can an organization use its own staff?
Yes. The technology is designed to support an organization’s existing caregivers, direct support professionals, supervisors, and other authorized staff. The purpose is to give those teams better tools, not to replace them.
Can GMA help our organization develop its own remote supports program?
Yes. GMA works with provider organizations so they can develop their own remote supports program, including setting up and running their own remote supports center (also called a remote support or remote monitoring center). GMA provides the GMA MyCompass System software, including the CompassCare Command Center, and helps with policies and procedures, continuity and backup planning, implementation and staff training.
Your organization remains responsible for its staffing, supervision and response, and for following your state’s remote supports rules. GMA does not operate the response center and does not guarantee regulatory compliance. To start a conversation, contact GMA.
Does GMA help providers develop remote supports policies and procedures?
Yes. As part of implementation, GMA helps provider organizations develop the policies, procedures and continuity plans they need to run their own remote supports operation.
Each organization adopts and owns its policies and remains responsible for meeting its state’s rules, which differ from state to state. GMA does not guarantee regulatory compliance.
Is GMA a call center or a personal emergency response system (PERS)?
No. GMA does not operate a call center, and the GMA MyCompass System is not a personal emergency response system. GMA provides technology, implementation, training and ongoing support. The organizations, families and caregivers who use the system remain responsible for staffing and response.
The system is not a replacement for 911 or emergency medical services. Critical alerts, such as fall alerts from connected devices or the MyCompass SOS button, go directly to the person’s authorized caregivers or care team, not to 911 or an emergency dispatch center. Nora Caregiver Intelligence supports human judgment and never replaces it. In an emergency, call 911.
What is the difference between remote supports and remote monitoring software?
Remote supports is a Medicaid waiver service for people with disabilities, delivered through technology by an enrolled provider, with state rules on consent, privacy and response.
“Remote monitoring software” usually means something else: IT tools that monitor computers and networks, or clinical remote patient monitoring billed by medical practices. The GMA MyCompass System is software that helps disability and care organizations run their own remote supports workflows; it is not IT monitoring software or a clinical monitoring service.
Is remote supports the same as a personal emergency response system (PERS)?
No. A personal emergency response system (PERS) sends an alert, usually from a button or device, to a monitoring center. Remote supports is a broader waiver service in some states, where trained staff support a person through technology from another location instead of being physically present, under a plan the person agrees to.
The rules for each service vary by state. The GMA MyCompass System is not a PERS. GMA may supply alert devices as equipment when they fit a person’s plan.
Explore whether remote support fits.
Tell us about the person, their goals, and the support around them. We’ll help you think through whether remote support makes sense and what it could look like.
Start Your JourneyPrefer email? info@graymattersalliance.com
Person-centered technology, equipment, services, and ongoing support. Every recommendation begins with the person.
Office: 122 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO 63301
Mailing: 119 S. Main St., St. Charles, MO 63301
314-266-2678
info@graymattersalliance.com
