eLuma’s vision is to help millions of people around the world change their lives for the better by facilitating easy access to affordable, high-quality and specialized online therapy services.
IDEA
When Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, it committed to provide 40 percent of the cost to educate children with disabilities. In the nearly 45 years since IDEA’s passage, the federal government has never lived up to that funding promise. (1) In fact, last year in 2019, federal IDEA funding only covered 13.8% percent of the cost to educate children with disabilities, leaving the remaining costs to states and local governments. (2) This underfunding leaves thousands of children with limited access to the care they need.
Medicaid & Teletherapy
Medicaid helps fill part of the special education gap by providing funding for schools so that they can deliver the wide range of services needed to educate students with disabilities and stay in compliance. This is generally assumed to only apply to on-site services, however what most don’t know is that teletherapy (aka online therapy, telehealth, telepractice, telemedicine) can be reimbursed through Medicaid.
In the Fall 2019 State Telehealth Laws and & Reimbursement Policies Report it says: “More states are also allowing schools to serve as an originating site, with nineteen jurisdictions explicitly allowing schools to be originating sites for telehealth-delivered services…”
Medicaid reimbursement policies vary state-by-state, however most of the policies have these general requirements: (3)
- Video must be provided in real-time with full-motion video and audio.
- Transmission of voice must be clear and audible.
- Therapy must be provided over a secure connection.
- Therapists are licensed or certified in the state they serve.
- Services provided through telehealth must meet the standard of care that would otherwise be expected should such services be provided in person.
eLuma Therapy
eLuma’s online speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, school psychologists, school social workers, and school counselors can provide all of the same required services live and online, through a fully-secure, HIPAA-compliant platform, as they can in person — and can do so with a high degree of efficacy, efficiency and flexibility.
All eLuma therapists are required to have proper credentials in the state they live and in the state they provide services for, in addition, eLuma looks for therapists who have rich and valuable experience as practitioners; on average, they have seven years of K-12 experience.
With a national network of high-quality therapists & educators, an innovative software platform, and a game-changing case management system, eLuma empowers you to provide your related services in the most effective, cost-efficient and dependable way. Come see the eLuma Difference.
To learn more about your state’s telehealth laws & reimbursement policies view the report here.
To learn how eLuma can specifically help your program, schedule a consultation here.
Sources
- National Education Association, IDEA Funding Gap by State FY 2019
- National Council on Disability, IDEA Series: Broken Promises: The Underfunding of IDEA
- Center for Connected Health Policy, State Telehealth Laws & Reimbursement Policies Fall 2019